April 2014 US commercial printing shipments were $6.71 billion, down -$97 million (-1.4%) compared to April 2013. On an inflation-adjusted basis, shipments were down -3.7% (-$255 million). For the first four months of the year, shipments were $25.15 billion, down -3.2% on a current dollar basis, and down -4.8% after adjusting for inflation. (click chart to enlarge) Recently, the Commerce Department released their annual revisions of manufacturing shipments data, and left the data series used in these calculations unchanged. In the past, there have often been revisions to five years of data with the most recent three years having significant changes. This was not the case this year. The Department issued a revised seasonally-adjusted data series that we do not use. In the past few years, May has become the moth for the highest level of printing shipments. This was a marked change in industry history, which had always shown September through November as very strong months, driven mainly by consumer retailers. That is no longer the case. Retailing behaviors have changed significantly, as 75% of consumers are using smartphones for shopping, often while inside the stores. May seems to be the strongest month because it has always had benign and unremarkable trends and will less reason to lose industry-specific volume than other months. We expect May shipments to be in the range of $6.82 billion. # # #