Cascades, Pratt price hikes positive for containerboard group, says Truist

Truist analyst Michael Roxland notes that Fastmarkets RISI reported that privately-held Pratt Industries announced price increases of $70/ton for linerboard and $90/ton for medium, effective in January, while Cascades (CADNF) announced $30/ton linerboard and $30/ton medium price increases, also effective January 1. These announcements follow similar ones last week from Packaging Corporation of America (PKG), International Paper (IP) and privately-held Georgia-Pacific and this week from Smurfit Westrock (SW), notes the analyst, who believes the increases to be driven by increasing market demand and persistently elevated input costs and views these announcements to be positive for Packaging Corp., International Paper and Greif (GEF).