Cardboard sale fall deepens in second half

Sales of corrugated board deepened the decline compared to the previous year in July and this trend should remain until the end of the year, according to the Vice President of the Brazilian Association of corrugated board (ABPO), Sergio Ribas. Given this, the entity revised the projection to the cumulative performance of 2015 for retraction of 3.5%, compared to 2.5% drop expected earlier.
"It's a performance more or less in line with the GDP [gross domestic Product], after the corrugated board packs most of the products," said the Vice President of the entity.
Last month, sales of corrugated board, according to preliminary data of the ABPO, fell 4.42% compared to October 2014, to 302.141 thousand tons. In September, on the same basis of comparison, the decline had been of 4.47%.
In January to October, the volume shipped of corrugated board, an important indicator of the level of economic activity, totaled 2.771 million tons, with drop of 3.33%. "It's a fairly interesting sale level considering market conditions," he pondered.
In the packaging industry, considering also glass, wood, plastic and other types of papers, it is expected the 3% drop in output this year, according to a study of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) prepared for the Brazilian packaging Association (Abre). At the beginning of the year, the forecast was the mildest fall, up 1.5%.
For 2016, as Raj, still cannot establish a performance forecast. However, there is scope for sales show some recovery this year in the face of the new level of the exchange rate, reducing imports and, consequently, the entry of products already packaged in the country.
"The exchange rate also favors our customers on the edge of exports, as in the case of refrigerators, for example," he explained. Despite the expected reaction, 2016 tends to be more of a "difficult" year in terms of demand and results for producers of cardboard.
Pressed by high labor costs, energy and raw materials, the industry has been struggling to pass this increase the final price to recover margins. "This recovery is a matter of financial health," said the Vice-President of the ABPO. The entity, however, does not provide information about their adjustment associated with indexes.