The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) released the March 2025 Printing-Writing Monthly report. According to the report, total printing-writing paper shipments decreased 5% in March compared to March 2024.

U.S. purchases of total printing-writing papers decreased 8% in February compared to the same month last year.

Total printing-writing paper inventory levels in March decreased 2% when compared to February 2025.

Total U.S. shipments across all three major Printing-Writing categories — Uncoated Free Sheet (UFS), Coated Free Sheet (CFS), and Mechanical (MECH) papers — declined on both a month-over-month (MoM) and year-to-date (YTD) basis. Overall, shipments fell by 5.3% MoM and 7.2% YTD.

Breaking it down by category: UFS shipments dropped 7.2% MoM and 8.3% YTD, while CFS declined 5.8% MoM and 8.2% YTD.

In contrast, Mechanical papers bucked the trend with a 12.5% increase MoM and a 3.0% gain YTD.

Source: AF&PA