The American Forest & Paper Association released its April 2020 printing-writing monthly report, showing 30% year-on-year decline.
According to the report, total printing-writing paper shipments decreased 30% in April compared to April 2019. US purchases of total printing-writing papers decreased 29% in April compared to the same month last year. Total printing-writing paper inventory levels increased 3% when compared to March 2020.
The American Forest & Paper Association said that US purchases of uncoated free sheet (UFS) papers in February decreased 7% compared to last February while the inventory level remained essentially flat (+0.3%) compared to January 2020. UFS imports decreased 36% while exports increased 31% in January 2020.
Coated free sheet (CFS) paper shipments decreased 27% compared to April 2019 while the inventory level decreased 1% compared to March 2020. CFS imports decreased 10% while exports increased three percent in March 2020, according to this latest research.
US purchases of coated mechanical (CM) papers in April decreased 18% compared to last April while the inventory level remained essentially flat (+0.2%) compared to March 2020. CM imports decreased 33% while exports increased 13% in March 2020.
Uncoated mechanical (UM) paper shipments decreased 31% compared to April 2019 while the inventory level decreased 6% compared to March 2020. UM imports and exports both decreased compared to March 2019, down 19% and 12% respectively.
Recently, in one of its latest blogs, Keypoint Intelligence released its results from its new modelling of COVID-19’s impact on print volumes.
Keypoint Intelligence explained: “By looking at the various vertical industry sectors and their contribution to office printing, we have estimated the best- and worst-case effects on print. The two main variables that we regard as critical to estimating print reductions are job losses by vertical and print loss from working at home.
Keypoint Intelligence said: “When we total all the best- and worst-case impacts from job loss and work at home for an assumed two-month lockdown, the effect on the 2020 total US print volume under a most likely case will be the loss of about 80 million pages out of 837 billion, or approximately 10%.”
