Milacron predicts flood of machinery sales

There’s considerable pent-up demand for plastics processing machinery and the dam should break soon, according to senior executives at machinery manufacturer Milacron Inc.
At a pre-NPE show press event held May 17 at the company’s headquarters in Batavia, Ohio, Ron Brown, Milacron’s chairman, president and CEO noted that capacity utilization rates at plastics processing plants in the U.S. reached 90.8 per cent in April.
This is the point that has traditionally triggered a flood of new orders for capital equipment, he said.
However, these orders may be a bit slower in coming this time around; oil and resin prices need to stabilize before processors feel comfortable placing orders for new machines, he explained.
Milacron sees the strongest growth for plastics as coming from packaging, some pockets in automotive, building materials and medical devices.
Already, machinery orders have begun to rise. Milacron’s orders in the first quarter of this year totalled US$225 million, up from US$202 million in the first quarter of 2005.
In injection molding machines, there’s been a noticeable growth in all-electrics. In 2005, all-electrics made up 25 per cent of the value and 40 per cent of units of total U.S. injection molding machinery shipments, Dr. Karlheinz Bourdon, Milacron’s president of global plastics machinery, said.
Additionally, Milacron has seen a 33 per cent increase in value and a 40 per cent increase in shipments of units of all-electric injection molding machines by the company in the first four months of this year.
The firm also noted a trends toward multi-material injection molding machines, with U.S. shipments increasing by 21.3 per cent between 2001 and 2005.