AF&PA Published Latest Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Report

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) announced publication of its 61st Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Report. The report is compiled using responses from companies representing over 86% capacity of entire U.S. paper and paperboard industry.

The report says that the overall U.S. paper and paperboard capacity witnessed a decline of 1.6% during the previous year. This compares with the average yearly decline of 1.1% since 2011.

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The containerboard capacity continued its decade-long trend of expansion, touching a record high of 40.4 million tons. The tissue paper capacity also expanded in 2020, in line with the trend displayed over the past five years. The capacity for newsprint and printing-writing papers decreased in 2020.

Meantime, the U.S. mill consumption of recovered fiber hit the second highest level over the past decade. The surge in mill consumption was mainly driven by consumption of corrugated recovered fiber, which touched a record high of 22.8 million tons in 2020. On the other hand, the only packaging grade to witness decline in 2020 was boxboard, for which AF&PA forecasts slight rebound this year. Meantime, the total paper and paperboard capacity is likely to remain essentially flat in 2021.