US sales of corrugated cardboard packaging picked up in the first quarter of 2013 but are growing slowly, reflecting moderate and inconsistent demand for the consumer products that they contain, according to a MNI survey.
Corrugated manufacturers in Texas, Wisconsin and Philadelphia announce that orders are growing steadily, particularly from the food & beverage and pharmaceuticals industries.
But one production measure of containerboard - the kind of paper used for making corrugated - suggested volatile demand and uncertainty about the strength of the economic recovery, according to MNI.
"I would not say that we are seeing a strong upturn in orders," said Jana Harris, president of Harris Packaging Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas, as quoted by MNI. "We are not convinced that the economic recovery is well established. It is improving but not at a rate that would make us feel comfortable enough to say that it has turned around," she adds.
