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January U.S. containerboard price hikes ($50 East, $70 West) "were better than we expected," says Mark Wilde, senior analyst for Deutsche Bank. "It is hard to recall another hike being so readily passed through during a seasonally-weak period," he adds. "The attention now turns to downstream implementation in corrugated box prices. However, with recent cost increases, supply constraints, and the high level of indexing, the pass-thru to box prices has a lot going for it. While rising costs will remain a big issue for mill operators in the first half of 2010, we have received reports over the past several days suggesting that the short-term upward surge in OCC may be starting to ease. Chinese buyers have reportedly backed out of the OCC market and domestic purchases by one major player may be easing," Wilde says.
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