The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) released its December 2023 Packaging Papers Monthly report.
Total packaging papers & specialty packaging shipments in December remained essentially flat (+0.4%) compared to December 2022. They were down 1% when compared to the same 12 months of 2022.
Shipments of the biggest subgrade in bleached packaging papers – food wrapping – were 24,100 short tons for the month of December, down 15.8% year-to-date.
The unbleached packaging papers operating rate was 78.5%, down 5.9 points from December 2022 and also down 5.9 points year-to-date