Feels Light, Less Filling

Gettinger reports that for the first three quarters of 2008, cartonboard producers were running at full utilization of capacity. Cost inflation for energy, chemicals, fiber, and transportation was painful, and price increases did not keep pace. “As the economy geared down at year end, some costs declined, but demand also softened slightly keeping margins squeezed,” states Gettinger. “Coated Recycled Board (CRB) suppliers took a small amount of additional downtime in December, but this represented less than 1 percent of annual capacity for U.S. and Canadian producers.” Hardest hit in the fourth quarter, according to -Gettinger, were containerboard producers whose substantial downtime took more than 1.4 million tons of capacity out of the system, or about 4 percent of annual capacity.