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By the numbers: Q4 and full-year 2025
Q4 net sales: $2.36B
Up 10.1% year over year
Full-year net sales: $8.99B
Up 7.2% year over year
Q4 net income: $101.8M
Down 54% year over year
Full-year net income: $774.1M
Down 3.9% year over year
- Results: Packaging Corporation of America CEO Mark Kowlzan called business conditions in 2025 “challenging” at times, but there were still bright spots for the company’s performance, he said on a Wednesday earnings call. Box shipments from plants in PCA’s legacy system — not including those when PCA acquired Greif’s containerboard business in September for $1.8 billion — were the company’s second-highest ever for Q4, after 2024’s record. Overall corrugated shipments for 2025 were flat compared with 2024. While “we were ultimately disappointed with December shipment volume,” trends have improved in January, said President Tom Hassfurther.
- Acquired assets: Q4 was the first full quarter since integrating Greif’s assets, and PCA uncovered some weaknesses. “We made good progress on the integration and improvement of the acquired Greif assets,” Kowlzan said. “Over a three-and-a-half month period of time, we’ve essentially rebuilt the Massillon, [Ohio] mill” and it has “become the little mill that could.” Operational efficiency has improved there and at the Riverville mill in Gladstone, Virginia, by an estimated 15%, Kowlzan said. Hassfurther noted that “the most important thing is we got all that work done up front and put ourselves in good shape for 2026.”
- Demand upturn: The North American containerboard industry had a tough 2025 that resulted in a 10% production capacity loss, but PCA now believes the sector “feels improved,” Hassfurther said. “There is a much more positive vibe across our entire customer base right now.” He noted that some uncertainty, such as with tariffs, that accompanied the Trump administration taking office in 2025 seems to be easing. “It was an unusual year, in my opinion, and a lot of that’s now cleared out,” Hassfurther said.
- Containerboard pricing: PCA anticipates minor benefits in Q1 from the just-announced $70 per ton containerboard price increase that begins in March, but most benefits will occur in the second quarter and beyond, considering price changes tend to occur over a 90-day period. The company plans to run machines to demand and will not have additional board to sell into the open market.
- Winter storm impacts: PCA is still assessing the fallout from last week’s widespread winter storm across the United States, which resulted in some plant shutdowns. Particularly affected areas include Tennessee, Texas, the Gulf Coast region and the mid-Atlantic, Kowlzan said. He thanked employees at “all the box plants that are down and people that have been without power,” and especially called out those at the mills in Riverville and in Counce, Tennessee, who “spent three or four days living at the mill during the storm and protecting the assets and running the mill.” Although operations continued at those mills, shipments were suspended.
- Gas turbine projects: Kowlzan gave more details on the previously announced investments to make three of its mills “energy independent” in the next two and a half years, which he said would shield the company from future rises in electricity costs. The plan involves installing gas turbines at the Riverville mill and the one in Jackson, Alabama, with plans for a third undisclosed mill also in the works. PCA is finalizing the scope and intends to seek board approval in the first quarter. Some of the $250 million in capital would be spent in 2026, but most would be in 2027 and 2028.
- Outlook: The announced machine shutdowns and restructuring at PCA’s mill in Wallula, Washington, should be finished by mid-February, and related cost improvements should start kicking in during the second quarter. Scheduled outage expenses are projected to be lower this year. PCA is optimistic about ending 2026 with higher year-over-year demand. Kowlzan also expects “growth in corrugated volume in our legacy box plants, and strong shipment volume from the acquired plants.”
