Corrugated & Containerboard Price Tracker
Monthly Producer Price Index data for corrugated packaging materials, sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) system. These indexes track wholesale price movements across the corrugated supply chain.
Comparative Price Trends
All five PPI series normalized to percentage change for direct comparison. This makes it easy to spot which materials are moving together and which are diverging.
Normalized view (% change from start of period)
Industry Price Benchmarks
Estimated spot prices for key corrugated and containerboard grades. These are curated from published industry sources and should be treated as directional indicators, not transaction prices.
42-lb Kraft Linerboard
$940-950
per ton
Source: Industry estimates
Recycled Linerboard
$840-850
per ton
Source: Industry estimates
Semi-Chemical Corrugating Medium
$830-840
per ton
Source: Industry estimates
OCC (No. 11)
$118-130
per short ton
Source: Regional averages
Detailed Price Analysis
Containerboard
Corrugated shipping containers, sheets, and rolls pricing trends.
View details →Linerboard
Paperboard PPI as a proxy for kraft and recycled linerboard.
View details →Corrugated Medium
Corrugating medium pricing via the box manufacturing index.
View details →OCC / Recycled Fiber
Old corrugated containers and recycled fiber pricing.
View details →Understanding PPI Indexes for Corrugated Packaging
The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. Published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and distributed through FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), these indexes are the most widely referenced public data for tracking wholesale price movements in the corrugated packaging supply chain.
Unlike spot market quotes or published transaction prices, PPI data captures broad, statistically sampled price changes across hundreds of producers. This makes it an excellent tool for identifying long-term trends and cyclical patterns, even though it may lag the fastest-moving spot markets by a month or more.
How to Read These Charts
Each PPI series is expressed as an index relative to a base period (usually set at 100). For example, if the Corrugated Shipping Containers index reads 165, it means that prices for that category have risen approximately 65% since the base period. The absolute number is less important than the direction and rate of change, which tells you whether prices are accelerating, decelerating, or reversing.
Key Relationships to Watch
The corrugated supply chain has several important pricing linkages. Linerboard and corrugating medium are the two primary raw materials in containerboard, so their price movements tend to lead changes in finished corrugated box prices by one to three months. OCC (old corrugated containers) is the main recovered fiber feedstock for recycled grades of linerboard and medium, so OCC price spikes can push up recycled containerboard costs significantly.
When linerboard and medium prices rise in tandem, corrugated box producers typically issue published price increases within 60 to 90 days. Conversely, when OCC prices drop sharply, mills with high recycled fiber content may see margin improvement, but this does not always translate into lower box prices for end buyers due to the concentrated structure of the containerboard market.
Data Sources and Methodology
All PPI data on this page comes from the FRED API maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The underlying data is collected and published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. FRED series are updated monthly, typically with a one-month lag. The industry benchmarks shown above are curated estimates compiled from published trade sources and should not be used as transaction-level pricing references.