Containerboard (CONT’D FROM PAGE 100)
Board Converting NEWS INTERNET DIRECTORY
saw ecommerce become of critical mass to drive the con- tainerboard market,” said Staphos. He pointed especial- ly to the pandemic period from the second half of 2020 through the first half of 2021, where the containerboard growth rate was as high as three percent to six percent. Prior to that it was effectively flat to slightly down in terms of aggregate consumption going back to 1999. While he sees a de-escalation of growth going forward, he believes the public appetite for ecommerce will continue to support production at a higher than historic levels. “Consumers have learned to use ecommerce for applications that they hadn’t previously.” If the generative role of ecommerce seems intuitive, market observers acknowledge a lack of hard supporting evidence. Independent box makers in a Bank of Ameri- ca survey stated a belief that between 10 percent and 15 percent of their shipments go to the ecommerce market, but Staphos acknowledged the report’s anecdotal nature. “Ecommerce is a delivery channel, so it is very difficult to determine the portion of containerboard it uses,” said Sta- phos. “A box customer might be shipping to a distributor, a retailer, or directly to a consumer. It’s hard to know which.” Josephson at KeyBanc goes further, exuding skepti- cism about ecommerce’s role. “Most of the people with whom I speak take it at face value that ecommerce has been a boon to box demand over the past several years,” he said. “They get all these cartons from Amazon on their doorstep and assume that it has to have been a major driv- er of industry growth. But I’ve published research suggest- ing that ecommerce has not had nearly the impact on box demand as is commonly believed.” Josephson questions the common wisdom that ecom- merce sales require more than their share of corrugated board. “To the best of my knowledge, no one has done any research to determine how box intensive ecommerce sales are versus in-store ones,” he said. “If they have, they haven’t shared it with anyone. Everyone just assumes that if you buy a pair of shoes on Amazon, that sale is more corrugate-intensive than it would be if you purchased from a local store. It may well be, but by what order of magni- tude is unknown.” He added another complication: major ecommerce retailers such as Amazon are taking steps to reduce their packaging usage. So what’s the primary driver of corrugated usage? Jo- sephson maintains it is the overall current of trade. As ev- idence he noted that box demand increased in tandem with an economy invigorated by government stimulus during the pandemic, and then decreased in tandem. “Box demand began to slow as the economy did precisely the same thing.” As to the future, he said the health of the container- board industry will rest on the direction of the larger U.S. and global economies. “What matters is the volume of goods being bought, not the form in which that takes place.”
SAUER SYSTEM www.sauersystem.com
Sauer provides intelligent solutions for scoring, slitting, slit-scoring, and perforating on corrugators and floor slitters; and glue tab cutting, creasing, slotting, trimming and scrap chopping on presses. New, featured offerings include FRX Adjustable Folding Rail System and G3 Scoring System: the latest proven creasing technology on the market.
STAFFORD GROUP www.go2stafford.com
Interactive website for Stafford Corrugated Products and Stafford Cutting Dies. Featuring online ordering of replace- ment parts. Also, visitors can automatically calculate sheet size for most die-cut standards.
SUN AUTOMATION GROUP ® www.sunautomation.com
SUN Automation Group is the global leader in providing innovative solutions to the corrugated industry. SUN engi- neers and builds the SUN625 Rotary Die Cutter, provides sales, service and support in North and Central America for Latitude Machinery Corporation, manufacturer of Mini to Jumbo FFG and RDCs. Additionally, SUN is the North Amer- ican, UK and Ireland sales and service provider for Para Machinery’s line of equipment, and is the North American sales provider for Highcon. SUN also powers the corrugat- ed industry’s premier IIoT platform, Helios, and is the OEM source for Langston/Staley equipment parts and service. THACKER INDUSTRIAL SERVICE COMPANY www.thackerindustrial.com Specializing in corrugated machinery, T.I.S.CO. offers quali- ty-made products, support services, and more. T.I.S.CO. has a reputation of dependability, not only in the product, but in service and support. With more than 25 years’ experience, T.I.S.CO. installs equipment and machinery, moves or sets up entire plants, rewires and rebuilds - all over the world. VT GROUP www.vtgrouponline.com VT offers prepress services for the POP display and corru- gated shipping container industry including graphic design, optimized digitally imaged printing plates and innovative pre-mounting solutions. Our large-format digital printing fa- cility (Digital Impact) is a leading short-run manufacturer of distinctive POP displays and signage where litho-like graph-
ics are preferred. WPR SERVICES www.wprservices.net
WPR Services was established in 2016. What originally start- ed as a technical services company expanded its product offerings to include a machine center learning platform POWtalk™. Our analysis of video, audio, machine metrics, employee ergometrics, and person to person conversation provides a way to identify safety and process inefficiencies.
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September 19, 2022
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