More manufacturers looking at medical molding: CPL survey

Last year, in order to gauge how interested Canadian processors were in the growing medical products market, Canadian Plastics sent out a medical manufacturing survey to molders and extruders.

We have conducted a second medical manufacturing survey this year, and the results are quite revealing.

Over 70% of this year’s respondents were injection molders, but we also heard from several pipe (8.8%), profile (23.5%) and tubing (14.7%) extruders.

When asked if they manufacture devices or components for the medical sector, nearly half of the manufacturers surveyed responded in the affirmative.  This is a significant increase when compared to last year’s survey, where only 36.4% of respondents were manufacturing medical products.

Additionally, manufacturers also seem to be more interested in entering the medical market. Out of the respondents that don’t currently serve the medical industries, 48.1% said they hope to manufacture products for the sector in the next two years, compared to 36.4% in 2008.

Increases in the number of companies serving or looking to serve the medical field shows that manufacturers are looking at the emerging market in the face of weakening traditional business segments.

Canadian manufacturers also continue to invest in technologies that support medical manufacturing. Fifty per cent of this year’s respondents have cleanrooms and controlled environments at their plants, and processors are also investing in micro molding machinery and equipment (23.5%), other machinery or equipment related to medical applications (20.6%), and special certification or compliance with industry standards (23.5%).

The Canadian Plastics Medical Manufacturing survey is part of the Medical Report in the April 2009 issue, where we provide the latest intelligence on the medical market.