SAN FRANCISCO, (paperloop.com) - U.S. containerboard prices held up unchanged this month from last month despite continued discounting and uncertainty about market conditions heading into November/December. Despite the attacks on Sept. 11, box shipments in September totaled a surprising 1.62 billion ft2 per day on 19 shipments days -- the second highest daily shipment total in a month this year. Producers also kept a close eye on supply and inventory decreased 5,600 tons at the end of September from end of August to total 2.759 million tons at U.S. mills and box plants. Pricing for 42-lb unbleached kraft linerboard in the U.S. East was unchanged, as was pricing for 26-lb semichemical corrugating medium in the East. Discounting was certainly available with most containerboard suppliers on orders of 1,000 tons or 2,000 tons or more, according to various contacts. One independent converter in the East said the sporadic market pricing resulted partly from recycled linerboard and recycled medium that was, in various cases, running significantly lower than the kraft linerboard and semichem medium levels. Officials with three of the five largest integrated producers were concerned about market board and box demand in November through January, and said their mill systems were committed to extensive market-related downtime in the coming 100 days as a way to possibly avoid price decline. One contact said for a major integrated said the company had been discussing permanent shuts for months because of the high-cost of downtime compared with the cost of permanent shuts of machines. Still, various producer contacts expected that operating rates in roughly the 80-85% range -- as was done much of this year -- might generally balance supply with the weakened demand in November through January. In third quarter, International Paper Co. said it operated at 84% of its containerboard capacity, taking out an estimated 200,000 tons of capacity. U.S. containerboard inventory at box plants and mills decreased for the second straight month in September, by 5,600 and totaled 2.759 million tons, according to AF&PA. The inventory decrease was completely at box plants, where inventory dropped 14,400 tons. Mill inventory increased 8,900 tons in September, from August. September actual box shipments totaled 30.8 billion ft2, down 5.4% compared with September 2000, according to the Fibre Box Assn. Year-to-date, total shipments were 287.5 billion ft2, down 5.0% on an actual basis and down 5.5% on an average-week basis. September's average-week total was 8.1 billion ft2 (compared with 7.5 billion ft2 in August) and the month's average-week shipments were off 0.4% compared with September 2000.