If you haven’t been re-using your corrugated cardboard boxes, now’s a great time to start. A price hike of $55 per ton in July pushed up prices from 7% to 11% for Procurement operations.

Hold on to your wallet: Another price increase is possible in early 2009.

More than 60% of box plant workers surveyed Longbow Research in August felt the July price increase would only partially offset inflation, leaving the door open to more price hikes.

It’s not due to demand. While containerboard supplies continue to be less than optimum, shipments have dropped an average 2.4%, calculated on a weekly basis. About half of businesses are reporting that containerboard supplies are tighter; the other half say it’s about the same.

Maybe it’s a good time to quit tearing down those boxes and putting them out with the recycling materials. Check with your vendors to see if you can get any price breaks for re-using shipping boxes.

After all, the situation isn’t entirely unlike consumer supermarkets: Most will reimburse you a few cents for every plastic bag you bring back to re-use.

Tags: cardboard, containerboard, price, procurement