Graphic Arts Index

By Staff -- graphic arts online, 10/1/2002

The Federal Reserve Board estimates that unit output from the nation's paper manufacturers was 1.6% lower during the second quarter of 2002 than in the same period in 2001. But activity gradually improved over the first half of 2002 after bottoming out during Q4 2001. Total U.S. paper production during Q2 2002 was 2.7% greater than during Q1 2002; industry output had declined by 5.1% between 2000 and 2001. Capacity utilization within the U.S. paper industry sector has also improved steadily, if slowly, during the spring. The overall industry's capacity utilization rate rose from 74.1% during December 2001 to a much healthier, if still subdued, 78.0% during June 2002.

Paper Industry Indicators

	Actual Value			Annual % Change
	Q2/01	Q1/02	Q2/02	2001	2002*	2003*
Paper Shipments (1)	38.7	36.2	37.4	-7.5	-3.0	3.7
Paper Production (2)	108.8	104.4	107.1	-5.1	-0.7	2.6
Paper Capacity Utilization (3)	77.8	75.1	77.2	-6.0	-0.2	2.2
Transaction Prices (4)
	Q2/01	Q1/02	Q2/02	2001	2002*	2003*
Newsprint	593.3	475.0	451.7	2.6	-12.2	6.6
Directory, Uncoated Groundwood	736.7	705.0	661.7	5.0	-7.3	4.1
SC, Uncoated Groundwood	800.0	693.3	700.0	-5.0	-9.2	3.7
Offset, Uncoated Groundwood	640.0	605.0	546.7	6.8	-8.4	7.7
Offset, Uncoated White, 50 lb.	703.3	660.0	673.3	-5.4	-3.7	2.5
Coated, #1, 70 lb.	1600.0	1600.0	1533.3	-1.8	-3.4	3.8
Coated, #3, 60 lb.	820.0	800.0	720.0	-11.7	-10.4	2.3
Coated, #5, 34 lb. Roto	1040.0	930.0	820.0	-4.9	-13.2	5.5
Bond, Uncoated White, #4	798.3	750.0	746.7	-8.2	-5.5	4.1
(1) Billions of dollars, seasonally adjusted; U.S. Commerce Department (2) Industrial Production Index; 1992=100, seasonally adjusted; Federal Reserve Board (3) Percent of Production Capacity, seasonally adjusted; Federal Reserve Board (4) Dollars per ton; Purchasing magazine's Transaction Price Survey*=Forecast