US box shipments for 2008 fell 3.9%-to lowest level since the mid-1990s;2009 forecast calls for 2.4% fall

摘要

The worst recession in decades caused actual US box shipments for all of 2008 to drop 3.9% from 2007 shipments to 374.3 billion ft2-the lowest level since the mid-1990s,according to Fibre Box Assn(FBA)statistics released this week.December box shipments on an actual basis dropped 7.0% to 27.4 billion ft2 from a year ago,but were down 16.3% on an average-week basis(adjusted for two extra working days in the latest month).The"average"decline,blending actual and average week,was down 11.7% from a year ago.