Last week, printing shipments data for July were released, and came in at $6.31 billion for the month. Granted, that’s down -3.4% from June, but it’s up +2.3% from July 2017. This is the first time since 2016 that shipments for the month exceeded those of a previous year. 2018 started out in the shipment doldrums, and it was a long, hard slog upward, but June and July closed in on and then surpassed last year. August will be the telltale month. Will the recent seasonality trend continue? Will August 2018 shipments exceed August 2017’s? Vegas bookmakers await your call.

After all, we do have some ground to make up: On a year-to-date (January to July) basis, thus far 2018 comes in at $44.97 billion in current dollars, $45.26 adjusted for inflation. By way of comparison, in 2017, January-to-July shipments came in at $44.68 (current dollars) or $46.11 (inflation-adjusted).