Smurfit Westrock executives said during Wednesday’s earnings call that they’re overall pleased with second-quarter performance and anticipate a stronger second half of the year.

North American corrugated volumes were down 4.5% year over year, which was “in line with our expectations as we continue to execute on our value-over-volume strategy,” said CFO Ken Bowles. 

Company executives and analysts all noted that the containerboard market is strengthening and has tightened significantly in roughly a six-week period this summer. “People did not expect for the market to change so rapidly,” said CEO Tony Smurfit. “Nobody would have been pre-buying.”

Barring Smurfit Westrock’s limited sales of coated recycled paperboard, the company is essentially sold out for all paper grades and is in “catch-up mode” for the remainder of the year, he said.

“Global paper markets today are as strong as I have seen in my lifetime within this industry,” Smurfit said, adding that conditions for nearly all grades are “as tight as I can remember.”

Smurfit Westrock nearly sold out of most grades in ‘tight’ paper market | Packaging Dive