Q4 Paper Outlook — On-the-Cheap Sheets

Even with continued acceleration through December, the economist expects industry sales to only be up 1 percent to 2.4 percent for all of 2003. "In all likelihood, the final number will be toward the lower end of that range. We basically lost the first half of the year," he explains.

As the business outlook improves into 2004, there will still be bad news—for printers and paper makers—in the positive numbers, Paparozzi notes. The improvement will be seen in business activity only, not pricing pressure, and it is being measured against very depressed levels, he points out.