U.S. P&W Paper Shipments Rise in February
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Total U.S. printing and writing (P&W) paper shipments increased 2% in February compared with February 2011, according to AF&PA's (Washington, D.C., USA) February 2012 Printing-Writing Preliminary Shipments Report released this past week. Three of the four major P&W grades posted increases compared with last February, although tone grade, uncoated mechanical, decreased 10%.
Free sheet paper shipments were up 3% compared with February 2011, and are up by 1% year-to-date. Uncoated free sheet (UFS) shipments posted a 3% increase over February 2011, which more than offset the small decline in January, bringing year-to-date UFS shipments up 1%. Coated free sheet (CFS) shipments also increased 3%. Combined with the slight increase in January, year-to-date shipments are up nearly 1.5%.
Mechanical paper shipments decreased by 1% compared with February 2011, and for the year are down 4%. The culprit is uncoated mechanical (UM) paper shipments, AF&PA notes, which are down 10% year-over-year. Since this decrease matches the decrease in January, year-to-date shipments are also down 10%.
On the other hand, coated mechanical (CM) paper shipments increased the most out of the four grades, up 4% compared with February 2011. This strong growth was not quite enough to offset the 5% decrease in January, so year-to-date shipments are down 1%.
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