The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) released the 66th Annual Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Survey. The report provides detailed data on U.S. paper industry capacity and production compiled by the AF&PA statistics team. Though U.S. paper and paperboard production declined 3.7% in 2025, to 66.3 million tons, several sectors showed continued resilience. Containerboard operating rates held firm at 91.9%, while printing-writing operating rates improved to 82.8%, reflecting continued capacity adaptation to demand changes. Packaging paper production increased 1.7%, boxboard production was essentially flat at 12.4 million tons Printing-writing capacity fell 13.9% in 2025 to 7.7 million tons. Capacity has fallen from nearly 18 million tons in 2015, reflecting a long-term adjustment in this segment. However, operating rates for Printing-Writing increased from 76.8% in 2024 to 82.8% in 2025. Containerboard production fell 4.4% to 36.1 million tons, and containerboard capacity declined 5.1% in 2025. Despite that reduction, containerboard continued to account for more than half of total U.S. paper and paperboard capacity, and mills maintained a 91.9% operating rate.

The next wave of AI is moving beyond the screen and into the physical world, onto factory floors, into warehouses, and on roads. Physical AI is one of the fastest-growing frontiers in technology, and the companies building it need infrastructure that can keep up. Unlike traditional AI, which processes data and generates text on screens, physical AI enables machines to perceive, understand, and act in the real world. Where conventional machines follow fixed instructions and repeat the same task regardless of what's happening around them, physically intelligent machines sense their environment, reason using cloud-trained AI models, and adapt in real time. “Physical AI is going to touch every industry that moves, builds, or makes things, and our customers are moving fast to capture that opportunity,” said Uwem Ukpong, vice president, AWS Industries.

Reading is good for you. That’s not just an opinion—it’s the consensus of a growing number of researchers who see reading as not only vital to our ability to learn new things, but also important for our overall state of mind. There’s something to be said about the feel of paper—the physical, tactile experience of holding a book and turning its pages has real advantages over pixels on a glowing screen. And it turns out the data backs up what most of us already sense. A major study tracking more than 236,000 Americans over two decades found that reading for pleasure has declined by nearly 40% since 2003—a trend researchers at University College London called “deeply concerning.” Co-author Daisy Fancourt put it plainly: “The research is clear. Reading is a vital health-enhancing behavior for every group within society, with benefits across the life-course.” The irony is that most people already know they should be reading more. Studies consistently show that the gap between how much people read and how much they wish they did is wide—and that the vast majority of adults view reading as a meaningful investment in their own well-being.