AF&PA reports year-over-year decline in paper, paperboard production

The Washington-based American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) has released its 63^rd Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Survey, and the results show a slight decrease in U.S. paper and paperboard capacity.

Last year, paper and paperboard capacity declined 0.4 percent to 81 million tons, which fares slightly better than the 0.9 percent average decline per year since 2013.

“The U.S. paper industry continues to respond to shifting demands by converting paper machines to produce packaging grades, supporting U.S. manufacturing jobs and sustaining local communities as well as increased the use of recovered fiber,” the AF&PA says.

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Paper and paperboard production also declined, falling 3.3 percent last year. According to the report, boxboard production increased, containerboard and printing and writing paper decreased and tissue remained essentially flat.

The AF&PA examined paper-based packaging capacity and found that containerboard capacity decreased 0.6 percent last year. However, containerboard’s share of total paper and paperboard capacity continued to exceed 50 percent.

Boxboard capacity increased 2.4 percent and could continue ticking up with at least three announcements of additional boxboard capacity planned in 2025 or later to meet demand for paper-based consumer packaging, AF&PA says.

Both printing and writing paper and tissue capacity declined last year, too, with printing-writing capacity decreasing 0.7 percent and tissue decreasing 0.4 percent. The AF&PA reports a printing-writing machine was restarted last year as the sector rebounds from major declines during the coronavirus pandemic and says there were no printing-writing closures.

On the tissue side, the AF&PA says from a longer-term perspective, capacity increased at an average annual rate of 0.7 percent from 2013 to 2022.

The organization also released its monthly printing and writing paper and packaging paper monthly reports—both revealing decreases in shipments across several grades.

Printing and writing paper shipments have been steadily declining since last fall and once again have topped the biggest decrease yet, falling 22 percent in May compared with May 2022. U.S. purchases of printing and writing paper decreased 24 percent in the same period while inventory levels remained mostly flat month over month.

The AF&PA reports decreases in U.S. shipments of all major printing and writing grades compared with last May. Uncoated freesheet continues to see the smallest decline as it has in previous reports, with shipments decreasing 8 percent year over year.

In the packaging sector, total packaging papers and specialty packaging shipments in May decreased 5 percent compared with May 2022 and are down 4 percent when compared with the first half of last year.

The AF&PA survey is based on a survey of U.S. pulp and paper mills and details U.S. industry capacity data for 2022 and 2023 for all major grades of paper, paperboard and pulp, as well as fiber consumption. It includes production data for 2022.

The data represent about 88 percent of U.S. paper and paperboard industry capacity, with estimates completing the data set.