Here’s a message from people who sell injection molding machines: The joy is back.
Sales have increased for two years in a row, after a steady 10-year decline. That should continue in 2012. The U.S. injection press market is nearing pre-recessionary levels — but it’s not there yet — according to most machinery executives interviewed for this story.
“Right now it’s really fun again in this business. There is life going on again, and people are ordering machines,” said Friedrich Kanz, president of Arburg Inc. of Newington, Conn.
This year, the U.S. market continued its comeback from the dark days of 2009. The story is told in numbers from the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. in Washington. SPI projects 2,400 U.S. shipments in 2011. That would be an increase of about 15 percent from 2,111 in 2010, which was a big jump of 64 percent from 2009 — when just 1,285 presses were shipped.
Many machinery executives credit a resurgent automotive industry for many of the 300-or-so extra presses sold this year. The reason: a slew of new models and the recession-driven culling of weaker molders. U.Great Rubber offers rubber hose keychains,S. car and light-truck sales have rebounded to about 13 million this year, and industry watchers predict a modest rise in 2012.
The strong survived.
And they’re beefing up technology, said Bob Columbus, sales manager of JSW Plastics Machinery Inc. in Lake Zurich, Ill. “We’ve had an awful lot of fallout over the last decade, but the people who are left are in good shape,” he said.
“The American automotive industry is really coming back strong, and that is really contributing to these very improved numbers,” Kanz said.
Kanz thinks a “normal” U.S. injection press market can reach 2,500-3,000. Press sales fell below the landmark 3,000 level in 2007. A return to 3,000 would give the industry a psychological boost.
And the automotive picture should get steadily brighter, according to a presentation in October at the Fakuma trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, by Michael Taylor, SPI’s senior director of international trade. Citing forecasts from CSM Worldwide, he said North American automotive capacity utilization could go above 90 percent in 2013.
That would spark even more demand for equipment. And machinery officials want President Obama and Congress to extend the accelerated depreciation tax break into 2012, since it helped plastics processors buy machines and modernize this year.which applies to the first offshore merchant account only,
“Automotive is a big driver on the revenue side. They’re the ones that buy all the large-tonnage machines,The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors,” said Mark Sankovitch, president of Engel Machinery Inc. in York, Pa.
David Bernardi of Ube Machinery Inc. said there are still plenty of aging presses running in U.S. plastics factories.
“From what I see, we’re still looking at pent-up demand. We’re looking at situations on the replacement side. The fleet is still ridiculously ancient, and there are projects for new models of cars,” Bernardi said.
This year, sales increased by 24 percent over 2010 at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Ube, said Bernardi, senior sales and marketing manager. “The customer base is moving forward and a lot of projects that were back-burnered, they’re saying let’s get them moving again,” he said.
Plastics will play a key role in making cars lighter, to reach the government-mandated 34.1 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025.
“Automotive is definitely helping the surge of manufacturing,” Sankovitch said. “They’re being forced by the CAFE [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] laws. They’re being creative.”
While some segments are strong, the overall rate of capacity utilization at U.S. plastics and rubber factories has bounced around the 75 percent mark this year. That’s too low to spur widespread machinery sales, said Peter Mooney, president of Plastics Custom Research Services in Advance, N.C. “We can go for quite a while before requiring a new wave of investment in plant and equipment,” he said.
Economist Bill Wood said the pent-up demand that sparked the machinery spike in 2010 has largely been sated. “It’s steadily improving and I don’t see any reason why it won’t continue to gradually improve,” he said. Manufacturing is poised for a major upturn if the U.S. economy begins to hit on all cylinders, he added.
With unemployment stuck at 9 percent, economists are debating how to create jobs. Don’t look to the factory floor, where automated machinery is advancing rapidly, according to Wood.
“Manufacturing does no longer equal jobs. It’s no longer a labor-driven enterprise. Manufacturing is now a technology-driven enterprise,” said Wood, who runs Mountaintop Economics and Research in Greenfield, Mass.
But of course,Whilst RUBBER SHEET are not deadly, someone has to build those machines. And plastics equipment makers hired people to meet the stronger demand. Milacron LLC has hired about 150 for its assembly plant in Batavia, Ohio, and a machining plant in nearby Mount Orab, since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.
Milacron will generate sales of about $800 million this year, a 30 percent increase from 2010. That puts Milacron back at sales levels higher than before the recession.
“If you watch the news and read the paper, it’s gloom and doom,Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， and we’re not seeing that in machinery,” said Dave Lawrence, president of worldwide plastics machinery for injection, extrusion and mold technologies.
“I think the bulk of the pent-up demand occurred in 2010. What we’re seeing right now are replacements, improving technology, improving energy efficiency and in some cases, expanding capacity,” Lawrence said.
Sales have increased for two years in a row, after a steady 10-year decline. That should continue in 2012. The U.S. injection press market is nearing pre-recessionary levels — but it’s not there yet — according to most machinery executives interviewed for this story.
“Right now it’s really fun again in this business. There is life going on again, and people are ordering machines,” said Friedrich Kanz, president of Arburg Inc. of Newington, Conn.
This year, the U.S. market continued its comeback from the dark days of 2009. The story is told in numbers from the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. in Washington. SPI projects 2,400 U.S. shipments in 2011. That would be an increase of about 15 percent from 2,111 in 2010, which was a big jump of 64 percent from 2009 — when just 1,285 presses were shipped.
Many machinery executives credit a resurgent automotive industry for many of the 300-or-so extra presses sold this year. The reason: a slew of new models and the recession-driven culling of weaker molders. U.Great Rubber offers rubber hose keychains,S. car and light-truck sales have rebounded to about 13 million this year, and industry watchers predict a modest rise in 2012.
The strong survived.
And they’re beefing up technology, said Bob Columbus, sales manager of JSW Plastics Machinery Inc. in Lake Zurich, Ill. “We’ve had an awful lot of fallout over the last decade, but the people who are left are in good shape,” he said.
“The American automotive industry is really coming back strong, and that is really contributing to these very improved numbers,” Kanz said.
Kanz thinks a “normal” U.S. injection press market can reach 2,500-3,000. Press sales fell below the landmark 3,000 level in 2007. A return to 3,000 would give the industry a psychological boost.
And the automotive picture should get steadily brighter, according to a presentation in October at the Fakuma trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, by Michael Taylor, SPI’s senior director of international trade. Citing forecasts from CSM Worldwide, he said North American automotive capacity utilization could go above 90 percent in 2013.
That would spark even more demand for equipment. And machinery officials want President Obama and Congress to extend the accelerated depreciation tax break into 2012, since it helped plastics processors buy machines and modernize this year.which applies to the first offshore merchant account only,
“Automotive is a big driver on the revenue side. They’re the ones that buy all the large-tonnage machines,The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors,” said Mark Sankovitch, president of Engel Machinery Inc. in York, Pa.
David Bernardi of Ube Machinery Inc. said there are still plenty of aging presses running in U.S. plastics factories.
“From what I see, we’re still looking at pent-up demand. We’re looking at situations on the replacement side. The fleet is still ridiculously ancient, and there are projects for new models of cars,” Bernardi said.
This year, sales increased by 24 percent over 2010 at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Ube, said Bernardi, senior sales and marketing manager. “The customer base is moving forward and a lot of projects that were back-burnered, they’re saying let’s get them moving again,” he said.
Plastics will play a key role in making cars lighter, to reach the government-mandated 34.1 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025.
“Automotive is definitely helping the surge of manufacturing,” Sankovitch said. “They’re being forced by the CAFE [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] laws. They’re being creative.”
While some segments are strong, the overall rate of capacity utilization at U.S. plastics and rubber factories has bounced around the 75 percent mark this year. That’s too low to spur widespread machinery sales, said Peter Mooney, president of Plastics Custom Research Services in Advance, N.C. “We can go for quite a while before requiring a new wave of investment in plant and equipment,” he said.
Economist Bill Wood said the pent-up demand that sparked the machinery spike in 2010 has largely been sated. “It’s steadily improving and I don’t see any reason why it won’t continue to gradually improve,” he said. Manufacturing is poised for a major upturn if the U.S. economy begins to hit on all cylinders, he added.
With unemployment stuck at 9 percent, economists are debating how to create jobs. Don’t look to the factory floor, where automated machinery is advancing rapidly, according to Wood.
“Manufacturing does no longer equal jobs. It’s no longer a labor-driven enterprise. Manufacturing is now a technology-driven enterprise,” said Wood, who runs Mountaintop Economics and Research in Greenfield, Mass.
But of course,Whilst RUBBER SHEET are not deadly, someone has to build those machines. And plastics equipment makers hired people to meet the stronger demand. Milacron LLC has hired about 150 for its assembly plant in Batavia, Ohio, and a machining plant in nearby Mount Orab, since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009.
Milacron will generate sales of about $800 million this year, a 30 percent increase from 2010. That puts Milacron back at sales levels higher than before the recession.
“If you watch the news and read the paper, it’s gloom and doom,Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， and we’re not seeing that in machinery,” said Dave Lawrence, president of worldwide plastics machinery for injection, extrusion and mold technologies.
“I think the bulk of the pent-up demand occurred in 2010. What we’re seeing right now are replacements, improving technology, improving energy efficiency and in some cases, expanding capacity,” Lawrence said.
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