At the Jefferies industrials conference, International Paper CEO Andy Silvernail said consumer inflation has cost roughly five points of aggregate box demand over 2.5 years and he expects demand to stay depressed through 2027, with OCC costs a "$400 million, $500 million swing" this year; PCA's Mark Kowlzan said its $140/ton containerboard increase took effect Sept. 1 and the company is running flat out ("if I had to come up with another ton, I don't know where I'm going to come up with another ton"), while Graphic Packaging's Robbert Rietbroek said the Waco, TX recycled paperboard mill is now running beneficially and will add ~100,000 tpy of URB (Packaging Dive)
Judge Mary Rowland denied motions to dismiss the North American containerboard price-fixing class action against Cascades, Georgia-Pacific, Greif, International Paper, PCA, Pratt, Smurfit Kappa and WestRock, finding "six lockstep or nearly lockstep price increases" and a market where five players now hold at least 85% share (vs. 42% in the mid-1990s) make a conspiracy plausible; defendants must answer by Sept. 29 (Packaging Dive)
Fastmarkets RISI will launch a North American Corrugated Cost Benchmark on Oct. 19 (January 2019 = 100) that blends virgin and recycled fiber prices with labor (26%), maintenance and other manufacturing costs (14% each) and OCC (10%) indicators — a potential alternative to the containerboard-index-linked box pricing model; comments are open until Oct. 5 (Packaging Dive)
Forestry & Timber
A new Global Wood Trends / O'Kelly Acumen outlook projects global softwood log supply growing only ~0.5%/yr through 2035, with demand outpacing it: North American softwood roundwood supply sits ~20% below 2000 levels, Europe is near its sustainable harvest limit, Canada is expected to stabilize but not recover, and the US South — where harvest still runs below growth and mills have added 11+ BBF of capacity since 2009 — is the best source of incremental logs (Wood Central)
Sweden's timber market opened September with a fresh round of price cuts as sawmills and pulp mills pull raw-material costs back toward weak product markets; Mellanskog's third reduction of 2026 trims spruce sawlogs by SEK 50/m³fub, small logs by SEK 25 and pulpwood by SEK 25 (to SEK 435 softwood / 415 birch) for contracts signed after Sept. 1 across seven central-Swedish counties (Global Wood Markets Info, Skogen)
Wood Pellets
USDA FAS data show US wood pellet exports reached 1.08 million metric tons in July, up 15% from June and 11% from July 2025 (Biomass Magazine)
Industry Technology Vendors
Kadant — Kadant Solutions introduced the EMO III oscillator test panel, a portable diagnostic tool (120 VAC or 24 VDC battery versions) that lets technicians commission and troubleshoot EMO III shower oscillators on paper machines without connecting to the machine control system (Kadant)
