May 2023 printing shipments came in at $7.26 billion, up from May’s $7.01 billion. May is an odd month for shipments—in 2021 and 2020 (well, yeah) they came in below April, while in 2019 and 2022 they were up from April. We’re not sure what “regular” seasonality will ultimately look like, but we’ll take it. Like most of the economy, we are still shaking off the last of the COVID effects, so 2023 is still a portrait of the industry settling back into a sort of normality.

January-to-May shipments for 2023 are at $35.88 billion, a bit below year’s $36.53 billion. As we head into summer, it looks like 2023 will end up being a decent year unless something abruptly happens in the latter half of the year (which as we all know has never happened before…).