June 2023 printing shipments came in at $7.38 billion, up from May’s $7.26 billion. June is usually a sluggish month for shipments, but this year, they’re up a bit from May. If 2022 in general had seen the massive rebound after the two COVID-infected years, and early 2023 was a comedown from all that activity, it looks like things are picking up again. The real test will be July. Can we keep it going?

With half of 2023 in the books, January-to-June shipments are at $43.36 billion, still a bit below last year’s $44.22 billion (we’re reminded of the Senator Everett Dirksen quote: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”). We have a decent chance to come close or even exceed 2022 shipments—unless something abruptly happens in the latter half of the year (there are a couple of new COVID variants making the rounds, which is of some concern).