Extrusion International 4-2018

19 Extrusion International 4/2018 Plastics Machinery Shipments increased Plastics machinery shipments in North America rose in the first quarter of 2018 on a year-over-year basis ac- cording to the statistics compiled and reported by the Plastics Industry Association’s (PLASTICS) Committee on Equipment Statistics (CES). This is the fourth consecutive quarterly year-over-year increase in plastics machinery shipments. The preliminary estimate of shipments of primary plastics equipment (injection molding and extrusion) for report- ing companies totaled $333.7 million in the first quar- ter. This was 15.1 percent higher than the total $290.0 million in Q1 of 2017, but 11.7 percent lower than the $378.0 million from Q4 of 2017. “Shipments of plastics machinery tend to be lower in the first quarter relative to other quarters due to seasonal- ity,” said PLASTICS Chief Economist Perc Pineda. “Still, the U.S. economy was off to a good start in the first quar- ter. Business confidence remains high – helped by cor- porate tax reform enacted last year. Plastics equipment shipments data are in sync with healthy corporate profits in the manufacturing sector, including the plastics indus- try.” The shipments value of injection molding machinery in- creased 22.9 percent in Q1 compared to the fourth quar- ter of last year, while the shipments value of single-screw extruders declined 14.6 percent during the same period. The shipments value of twin-screw extruders – which in- The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) plasticsindustry.org cludes both co-rotating and counter-rotating machines – decreased 27.1 percent. The U.S. total export value for plastics machinery in the first quarter was $404.0 million, a 7.7 percent decrease from the previous quarter ($437.9 million), but a 6.9 per- cent increase from a year ago ($377.7 million). Plastics machinery imports decreased 12.8 percent in the first quarter ($829.7 million). From the first quarter of last year, machinery imports rose 5.7 percent ($784.6 mil- lion). The U.S. continues to have a trade deficit in plastics machinery, which was $425.7 million in the first quarter – a 17.0 percent decrease from the fourth quarter last year, but 4.6 percent higher than a year ago ($406.9 mil- lion). The respondents to the Q1 survey expect that construc- tion, appliances and packaging will be strong end-mar- kets in the next 12 months. Their market outlook remains stable, as more respondents noted that they expected market conditions to be unchanged for the year due to the fact that the U.S. economy is at full employment ca- pacity. 250th VAREX II goes to Canada Two milestones were reached when Laval, Canada-based Pro-Pals Industries Ltd. ordered a VAREX II. For Pro-Pals, this milestone was the company’s start in blown film extrusion and for W&H it marked the construction of the 250th VAREX II line, which was launched at K 2013. In Pro-Pals’ 40 year history, the company has specialized in printing and converting and purchased film from outside suppliers. Going forward, about 80% of film will be manu- factured in house allowing the company to control the entire production process and pass this added value on to custom- ers. While expanding their facility to accommodate the new ma- chinery, Pro-Pals sent its extrusion team to the W&H Tech- nical Center in Lengerich for trials and to work on formula- tions. “Being able to use the lab is a unique service and was a real advantage for us. The training itself was a good mix of theory and practice that we found very useful,” said Pro-Pals- Vicepresident Lucio Casale, Jr. WINDMÖLLER & HÖLSCHER KG www.wuh-group.com