Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) reported 2Q 2021 net income of $207 million, or $2.17 per share, and net income of $207 million, or $2.17 per share, excluding special items. 2Q 2021 net sales were $1.9 billion in 2021 and $1.5 billion in 2020.
Reported earnings in the 2Q 2021 include special items expense and income rounding to a negligible impact, while reported earnings in the 2Q 2020 include $.79 per share of special items expense primarily for the impairment of goodwill associated with its Paper segment.
Commenting on reported results, Mark W. Kowlzan, Chairman and CEO, said, “Demand in our Packaging segment remained very strong. Our mills and plants continued to do an outstanding job of meeting our customers’ needs while managing through certain material and chemical availability issues, a tight labor market, various freight and logistics challenges, as well as the planned maintenance outages at four of our mills during the 2Q. The mills executed the planned outages extremely well and, with the help of the No. 3 machine at the Jackson Mill, provided our plants the necessary containerboard to achieve an all-time record for total box shipments. We were also able to build some much-needed inventory; however, our weeks-of-inventory supply was at a new low for this time of year ahead of an expected very busy second half. The sales groups in both the Packaging and Paper segments are doing a great job of implementing our previously announced price increases, and we continue to deliver on the numerous initiatives and capital projects to reduce costs and improve efficiencies across all of our mills and corrugated products plants. These efforts are extremely important as we continue to experience significant cost inflation across the Company as well as logistics challenges with both our inbound and outbound freight needs.”
PCA is the third largest producer of containerboard products and a leading producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America. PCA operates 8 mills and 89 corrugated products plants and related facilities.
