AF&PA: U.S. capacity drops again.

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Washington, D.C., USA, recently released its 43rd Annual Capacity Survey that indicates paper and paperboard capacity in the United States fell in 2001 and 2002 This marks the first two-consecutive-year decline in total industry capacity, Looking ahead, the survey indicates that paper and paper board capacity will remain essentially unchanged in the next three years-declining by 0.5% in 2003 and then increasing 0.8% in 2004 and 0.4% in 2005.

In other news: AF&PA has pledged to reduce the paper industry's greenhouse gas intensity as part of President Bush's voluntary plan to address climate change. AF&PA President and CEO W. Henson Moore acknowledged that a strong economy is necessary to allow the industries represented by AF&PA to make the required investments to reduce emissions. "Based on preliminary calculations, we expect that these programs will reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 12% by 2012 relative to 2000," he said. He promised to refine AF&PA's estimates in a year and evaluate in two years the progress of members to determine if additional reductions or changes to the greenhouse gas programs are appropriate.