Loading ...Wall Street Stunned As Containerboard Carnage Wipes Out $3 Billion In Minutes
Was there any “good news” in today’s release of March containerboard and box data? If so, BMO’s Mark Wilde – and the market – missed it.
As the Canadian bank’s analyst wrote in an urgent dispatch, “markets have deteriorated rapidly” as box demand tumbled 3%, operating rates fell to 86.4% and exports slumped 19% y/y (containerboard and box shipments are a coincident indicator of trade momentum, and the latest data is quite simply a dire signal for global trade). As BMO points out, even with big production cut, “inventories fell less than the seasonal norm” and risk has increased that North American prices will follow sharp erosion in global prices