General situation of American paper and paperboard production in 2023

According to the 64th annual survey report on paper industry capacity and wood chip consumption released by the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA), in 2023, the paper and paperboard capacity in the United States decreased by 1.6% to 79.7 million tons. The average annual decline since 2014 is 0.9%. In 2023, the output of paper and paperboard in the United States decreased by 7.2%, and the output of all other paper types decreased except household paper. Paper-based packaging capacity in the United States In 2023, there were four cardboard and wrapping paper machines with a total capacity of 2.1 million t/a in the United States, all of which used 100% recycled fiber. However, due to customers' destocking and weak demand caused by economic headwinds, more than 1.7 million tons of production capacity (mainly using wood raw materials) was permanently cancelled in 2023. In 2023, the production capacity of carton board decreased by 0.7%. Despite the continuous decline in 2022 and 2023, the box board production capacity is still at a high level due to the average growth of 1.6% for 11 consecutive years from 2011 to 2021. Since 2021, the share of cardboard in the total production capacity of paper and cardboard has exceeded 50%. The capacity of packaging paper increased by 4.8%. All the growth comes from unbleached packaging paper. At the same time, in 2023, the capacity of carton paper decreased by 2.0%. At present, two plans to increase the capacity of carton paper in 2025 have been released to meet the demand of paper-based consumer packaging. Production capacity of American printing and writing paper and household paper In 2023, the production capacity of American printing and writing paper decreased by 5.0%, which was lower than the three-year average decline (7.1%) and the ten-year average decline (6.9%). For the first time in more than 50 years, the production capacity of printed writing paper is less than 10 million t. In 2023, the production capacity of printed writing paper only accounted for 12% of the total production capacity of paper and paperboard, which was lower than 28% when electronic communication was popularized in 2000. In 2023, the production capacity of household paper decreased by 0.9%. Despite the year-on-year decline for two consecutive years, from 2014 to 2023, the annual average growth rate of household paper production capacity was 0.4%.