U.S. P&W Paper Shipments Increase
Total U.S. printing and writing (P&W) paper shipments increased 2% in February compared with February 2011, according to AF&PA's (Washington, D.C., USA) February 2012 Printing-Writing Paper Report released this past week. Three of the four major P&W grades posted increases compared with last February, and the one decrease is the smallest since April 2011.
U.S. purchases (shipments + imports – exports) of P&W papers decreased slightly less than 1% in February. Total P&W paper inventory levels also decreased slightly less than 1% compared with January 2012.
Some highlights from the additional findings are:
- Coated mechanical (CM) paper shipments increased 4% year-over-year, the largest such increase since September 2010
- Uncoated mechanical (UM) paper shipments decrease by the smallest year-over-year change since April 2011, which was the start of the recent declines that came on the heels of 15 consecutive months of year-over-year increases
- Shipments of uncoated free sheet (UFS) papers increased year-over-year for just the second time in the past 20 months
- Shipments of coated free sheet (CFS) papers increased year-over-year for the first time in the past 15 months.
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/