Price increases appear to be finished for the year, as analysts point to continued improvement in volumes while the industry pulls up from the post-pandemic \u201ccardboard box recession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sales volumes are ticking up as the fiber packaging industry recovers from the depths of the post-pandemic \u201ccardboard box recession,\u201d according to analysts\u2019 reports. But don\u2019t expect the rebound to be speedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BofA Securities and other industry observers started signaling this summer that a turnaround might be afoot. Now, they\u2019re more confident in declaring improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are in an early stage of expansion after a two-year packaging recession,\u201d and BofA\u2019s outlook points toward a soft landing, according to an Oct. 17 note to investors from BofA Securities research analyst George Staphos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, newly released data suggests fiber packaging pricing remains flat. Fastmarkets RISI released its monthly containerboard and boxboard pricing data on Oct. 18, showing largely unchanged pricing in October compared with September, similar to the prior month\u2019s trend. Approximately 90% of buyers and sellers reported no pricing changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demand also held steady, unchanged from the previous month, despite minor output impacts from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Mills largely escaped from the storms unscathed. For instance, both International Paper and Smurfit Westrock confirmed via email in early October that they had minimal operational impacts following Helene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Cascades announced in mid-September that it would implement a $40 per ton increase for linerboard, $70 per ton for medium and $40 per ton for white top linerboard effective Oct. 7, the attempt appears unsuccessful, per the Fastmarkets RISI data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an Oct. 20 commentary highlighting the new Fastmarkets RISI data, Michael Roxland, senior paper and packaging analyst at Truist Securities, noted that other leading producers, such as International Paper and Smurfit Westrock, have not followed suit with a third round of price increases. Previously, he stated in an Oct. 15 commentary that Cascades\u2019 increase \u201cneeds the support of the larger integrated players\u201d to take hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greif and others had indicated during earnings calls this summer that they wouldn\u2019t pursue additional price increases this year. However, most of the major players participated \u2014 at least to some degree \u2014 in two rounds of price increases in 2024, with the most recent occurring in June from companies including Georgia-Pacific and Pratt Industries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Price increases appear to be finished for the year, as analysts point to continued improvement in volumes while the industry pulls up from the post-pandemic \u201ccardboard box recession.\u201d Sales volumes are ticking up as the fiber packaging industry recovers from the depths of the post-pandemic \u201ccardboard box recession,\u201d according to analysts\u2019 reports. But don\u2019t expect the rebound<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[505],"class_list":{"0":"post-14721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corrugated-folding-carton","8":"tag-cascades"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14722,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721\/revisions\/14722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}