Dive Brief:
The price of cardboard reached a record high in February, according to the Producer Price Index for corrugated and solid fiber box manufacturing from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The rising prices indicate e-commerce demand is leading to higher costs for packaging materials.
The index has increased more than 4% since December 2020 and is up the same amount year-over-year, according to the BLS figures.
Corrugated industry shipments were up 3.4% year-over-year in 2020 to reach a total 407 billion square feet, according to figures emailed by the Fibre Box Association.
Cardboard prices reach record highs
Producer Price Index by Industry: Corrugated and solid fiber box manufacturing
Packaging Company Recovers From Ransomeware Attack - Atlanta, GA - WestRock closing the gap on production and shipping after falling prey to cyberattack.
WestRock earned 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s annual assessment of LGBTQ workplace equality.
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Feb 8th, 2021 “Our LGBTQIA teammates are an integral part of WestRock, and we are honored to be recognized by the HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index as a workplace that values their contributions,” said Steve Voorhees, chief executive officer of WestRock. “At WestRock, we remain steadfast in our commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging. Together, we can help sustain and be part of an environment where everyone at WestRock feels welcome, heard, valued and safe, so that each of us bring our best selves to the work we do, generate the best ideas for customers and contribute our best to the community.”
Operator
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the WestRock Company first-quarter fiscal 2021 results conference call. [Operator instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. James Armstrong. Please go ahead, sir.
James Armstrong
Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you, Justin. Good morning, and thank you for joining our first-quarter 2021 earnings call. We issued our press release this morning and posted the accompanying slide presentation to the Investor Relations section of our website. They can be accessed at ir.westrock.com or via a link on the application you are using to view this webcast.
We are working around the clock to complete our investigation and to restore normalized operations as quickly as possible, Steve Voorhees, WestRock s chief executive officer, said in a statement. WestRock teams are taking extraordinary steps to keep our mills and converting plants operational and to safely deliver to our customers.
The statement noted that WestRock is working with security vendors on system recovery efforts and on minimizing impact on customers. The company described the incident as likely leading to a loss of revenue and incremental costs that could affect its bottom line.
The ransomware incident at the paper and packaging giant is another reminder of the highly vulnerable nature of OT environments at many organizations, says John Livingston, CEO at Verve Industrial. In recent years, a growing number of companies have connected once air-gapped industrial control systems and OT networks to the Internet, for a variety of reasons.