Graphic Arts Index
By Staff -- graphic arts online, 2/1/2003
Weak demand from printing end-markets meant that paper industry shipment values fell again during 2002, but at only about half the rate of the year before. The value of paper shipped during the third quarter of last year was 2.3% greater than the same quarter a year earlier. The Federal Reserve Board estimates that unit output from the nation's paper manufacturers was 0.3% higher during third-quarter 2002 than third-quarter 2001. Finally, U.S. paper production during November 2002 was 2.5% greater than during the same month in 2001—the healthiest over-the-year trend recorded by the industry for any month since April 2000.
| Actual Value | Annual % Change | |||||
| Q3/01 | Q2/02 | Q3/02 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
| Paper Shipments (1) | 37.9 | 37.4 | 38.8 | -7.5 | -3.8 | 3.3 |
| Paper Production (2) | 95.6 | 94.2 | 95.7 | -5.2 | -0.9 | 2.3 |
| Paper Capacity Utilization (3) | 82.7 | 82.5 | 83.9 | -4.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 |
| Transaction Prices (4) | ||||||
| Newsprint | 573.3 | 455.0 | 451.7 | 2.6 | -19.1 | 3.7 |
| Directory, Uncoated Groundwood | 730.0 | 661.7 | 660.0 | 5.0 | -8.3 | 2.2 |
| SC, Uncoated Groundwood | 741.7 | 700.0 | 700.0 | -5.0 | -9.2 | 3.1 |
| Offset, Uncoated Groundwood | 640.0 | 546.7 | 538.3 | 6.8 | -12.0 | 5.5 |
| Offset, Uncoated White, 50 lb. | 673.3 | 673.3 | 676.7 | -5.4 | -3.5 | 2.3 |
| Coated, #1, 70 lb. | 1,600.0 | 1,533.3 | 1,500.0 | -1.8 | -4.3 | 0.7 |
| Coated, #3, 60 lb. | 806.7 | 720.0 | 720.0 | -10.7 | -11.6 | 1.5 |
| Coated, #5, 34 lb. Roto | 956.7 | 820.0 | 820.0 | -4.9 | -14.8 | 2.1 |
| Bond, Uncoated White, #4 | 770.0 | 766.7 | 771.7 | -8.2 | -3.0 | 1.3 |
| (1) Billions of dollars, seasonally adjusted; U.S. Commerce Department (2) Industrial Production Index; 1997=100, seasonally adjusted; Federal Reserve Board (3) % of Production Capacity, seasonally adjusted; Federal Reserve Board (4) Dollars per ton; Purchasing magazine's Transaction Price Survey |
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