Empire Container Corp

Thinking outside the box isn't easy when you make corrugated cartons for a living. But Southern California's myriad box makers are finding it necessary to survive in a commodity industry. While much of the economy continues to boom, U.S. box shipments are projected to grow a miserly 1% this year, reflecting America's spending spree on imported goods packed in foreign-made containers.

Thinking outside the box isn't easy when you make corrugated cartons for a living. But Southern California's myriad box makers are finding it necessary to survive in a commodity industry. While much of the economy continues to boom, U.S. box shipments are projected to grow a miserly 1% this year, reflecting America's spending spree on imported goods packed in foreign-made containers.

Ever since 1980, when Abraham Levy got the last of his four patents for designing those folding cardboard shades now on the dashboards of millions of cars, Levy has been busy suing alleged patent infringers for selling the shades without his approval. His latest legal effort came last week, when Levy sued L & M Enterprises, a wholesaler in Phoenix, Ariz., that he alleged is selling unauthorized copies of his design. L & M denied the charge.

Television shows and movies may be Southern California's most famous products, but the region churns out massive amounts of extruded, fabricated, formed, poured, sewn, smelted and stamped goods every day. Some are futuristic, such as the "bionic eye" crafted by Second Sight Medical Products Inc. Others are basic, including the cardboard boxes turned out by Empire Container Corp. and the wooden or steel ones by ABC Caskets.

Already beset by exploding natural gas prices, California businesses will be jolted by an extra $400 million in electricity costs if the state approves temporary rate hikes proposed Wednesday. The move is being pitched as an emergency effort to bail out the state's two largest utilities, but business owners are more concerned about their own bottom lines, which are being shredded by the dramatic double spike in energy costs.

Cruising the streets of South Gate in search of America's hottest export, Jose Gonzalez hit the brakes outside a liquor store. He struck pay dirt, not in the refrigerated section, but in the cardboard-filled dumpster out back. "With a full load I can earn around $20" at a recycling center, Gonzalez said, pointing to the flattened Budweiser cartons in the bed of his battered pickup. "I'm told that they'll end up in China."