Slowdown Moves Beyond Metals

The manufacturing slowdown that has depressed pricing and processing volumes in the scrap metal industry is also beginning to affect the plastics industry.

A speaker at the Plastics Encounter trade show being held near Cleveland revealed some sobering numbers to attendees, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Lori Anderson of the Washington-based Society of the Plastics Industry has reported that shipments of injection molding machines to manufacturers fell 42% in the first quarter of 2001, the steepest drop in a decade.

Anderson said the change is dramatic for an industry that has enjoyed—along with many other segments of the American economy—a decade of uninterrupted growth. The quick shift has been dramatic. “It’s very tough out there. Everyone is feeling the pinch,” Anderson remarked.

The Plain Dealer cited a Cleveland area plastic parts machinery maker as an example of the slowdown. The assembly plant of Van Dorn Demag Corp. is now idle one week each month, which is something new for most of the company’s 500 employees.

Van Dorn Demag president William G. Pryor echoed Anderson’s finding that the recent drop in orders is the worst he has seen since becoming the company’s CEO in 1991.

An economist speaking at the session noted that plastics parts making capacity utilization is currently at about 74%, down from its 1990s average of 85%.

A recycler of industrial plastics told Recycling Today that business has slowed noticeably, with inventory building up while demand is decreasing.