Supply Chain Disruptions and Weather Dampen February Economic Activity

Friday night  Pulp & Paper Week (PPW) published its estimates of March paperboard prices. 42lb kraft linerboard (KLB), the benchmark for most corrugated box contracts, was up $20/ton. Producers had announced a $60/ton increase. In cartonboard, bleached (SBS) and coated recycled (CRB) prices increased $20/ton. Producers had announced a $40-50/ton increase. Uncoated recycled boxboard/cartonboard (URB) prices were up $30/ton.

Per PPW, the ongoing issues at WestRock from the ransomware attack resulted in an inability to invoice many shipments made since January. Without many customers having been invoiced at higher prices, PPW seemed to suggest it could not acknowledge the full amount of the increase.

Beyond this, PPW suggests that early 2021 corrugated volumes have slowed from the torrid pace of late 2020 and that delivery backlogs for containerboard have become shorter.

Please keep in mind that producers are not releasing data to the AF&PA and the FBA for their statistics until mid-April. Prior, this was done monthly, a practice that ended December 31, 2020.

AICC welcomes member feedback on the current market situation in containerboard and cartonboard. Please send your comments to Mike D’Angelo at  mdangelo@aiccbox.org.