Graphic Arts Index
Staff -- graphic arts online, 2/1/2002
United States paper manufacturers produced 5.2% less product (in unit value terms) this past November than during November 2000. After declining by 0.8% between 1999 and 2000, total U.S. paper production through the first 11 months of 2001 was 5.0% below the cumulative total for January through November 2000. Overall capacity utilization in the paper industry has declined in all but four of the past 13 months, and by November 2001 stood at just 77.0%, or 5.7% below its level of a year earlier. With average paper prices moving generally lower during the past year, the dollar value of U.S. industry output has declined even more sharply than unit production.
| Actual Value | Annual % Change | |||||
| Q3/00 | Q2/01 | Q3/01 | 2000 | 2001* | 2002** | |
| Paper Shipments (1) | 42.6 | 39.8 | 38.8 | 8.0 | -7.7 | 2.8 |
| Paper Production (2) | 112.1 | 108.8 | 108.4 | -0.8 | -5.1 | 1.3 |
| Paper Capacity Utilization (3) | 81.3 | 77.8 | 78.0 | -2.0 | -6.0 | 2.2 |
| Q4/00 | Q3/01 | Q4/01 | 2001* | 2002** | 2003** | |
| Transaction Prices (4) | ||||||
| Newsprint | 600.0 | 573.3 | 521.7 | 2.6 | -4.4 | 4.2 |
| Directory, Uncoated Groundwood | 730.0 | 730.0 | 723.3 | 5.0 | -2.9 | 5.3 |
| SC, Uncoated Groundwood | 820.0 | 741.7 | 715.0 | -5.0 | -5.3 | 1.3 |
| Offset, Uncoated Groundwood | 640.0 | 640.0 | 630.0 | 6.8 | -3.2 | 2.7 |
| Offset, Uncoated White, 50 lb. | 746.7 | 673.3 | 660.0 | -5.4 | -1.9 | 4.4 |
| Coated, #1, 70 lb. | 1,610.0 | 1,600.0 | 1,600.0 | -1.8 | 2.3 | 1.4 |
| Coated, #3, 60 lb. | 926.7 | 806.7 | 800.0 | -11.7 | -6.0 | 5.5 |
| Coated, #5, 34 lb. Roto | 1,060.0 | 956.7 | 930.0 | -4.9 | 0.7 | 2.6 |
| Bond, Uncoated White, #4 | 873.3 | 770.0 | 753.3 | -8.2 | -5.4 | 4.2 |
| (1) Billions of dollars, seasonally adjusted; U.S. Commerce Department (2) Industrial Production Index; 1992=100, seasonally adjusted; Federal Reserve Board (3) % of production capacity, seasonally adjusted; Federal Reserve Board (4) Dollars per ton; Purchasing's Transaction Price Survey |
||||||
