Shipments of paper and paperboard in February fell 20.5 percent from a year earlier to 1.938 million tons, marking the steepest fall under the current data system introduced in 1988, an industry group said Monday.
As inventories have declined, demand "has hit bottom in January-February and orders should increase in April when the new fiscal year begins," said Yoshio Haga, chairman of the Japan Paper Association and president of Nippon Paper Group Inc.