The American Forest & Paper Association has released US paper production statistics for March 2016.

Printing-Writing Papers. The American Forest & Paper Association's report of paper production in the month of March shows that total printing-writing paper shipments fell 4.0% from the level of March 2015. Total printing-writing papers inventories in March dropped 2.0% from the February level.

Uncoated free sheet shipments decreased for the first time in 2016, down 1.0% from shipments in March 2015. UFS imports were down 19% year over year in February.

Coated free sheet paper shipments in March were down 8.0% from March 2015. Imports of CFS papers fell 12% in February, with exports up 2.0% year-over-year.

Uncoated mechanical paper shipment were down 8.0% when compared with March 2015. Imports of UM papers were down 2.0% in February while exports of UM in February were up 56% compared to the previous year.

Coated mechanical shipments in March fell 4.0% from the level of the same month in 2015. Imports of CM dropped 14% in February, compared to the same month of 2015.

Kraft Paper. Total Kraft paper shipments were 147.6 thousand short tons, flat compared to March 2015. Bleached Kraft paper shipments fell to 7.0 thousand tons from February's level of 8.7 thousand tons, while unbleached Kraft paper shipments rose from 131.1 to 140.6 thousand tons. Overall, shipments in the first three months of 2016 were 0.7% lower compared to the same period in 2015. Total month-end inventories fell to 70.3 thousand tons.

Containerboard. Production was 1.1% lower than in March 2015. The month-over-month average daily production compared to February 2016 was down 2.6%. The container board operating rate for March decreased to 94.4% and the year-to-date operating rate of 94.9% was 0.6% lower than the same period in 2015.

Boxboard. Total boxboard production rose 1.8% over March 2015 and 6.6% over February 2016. Unbleached Kraft boxboard production increased over the same month of 2015, and total solid bleached boxboard and liner production rose over the levels of both March 2015 and February 2016. Production of recycled boxboard also rose above the levels of both March 2015 and February 2016.