Printing shipments for April were up by $49 million (+0.7%) compared to 2011, but down by -$22 million after adjusting for inflation. Shipments were $6.773 billion in current dollars. March printing shipments, already revised in the benchmark five-year revision just released about two weeks ago, were revised down by -$67 million. This made March shipments $6.771 million, just $2 million less than April shipments (-0.3%). This April report continues the restatement of industry seasonality, according to the Commerce Department, where March is no longer the biggest printing month of the year. That month is now May, which last year was $7.3 billion. If May follows the pattern of 2013, shipments will be approximately $7.2 billion when they are reported next month. We'll see; we are skeptical of this new seasonality, but they are the data we have and will note our skepticism accordingly. For the first four months of the year, shipments are down -$933 million (-0.6%) on a current dollar basis, and -$1.69 billion (-2.1%) on an inflation-adjusted basis. (click chart to enlarge)

# # #