Canadian Plastics

Shipments of primary plastics machinery in North America up in Q4 2022, report says

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Increases in injection molding machine, extruder shipments reflect positive changes in the economy, according to the Plastics Industry Association.

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Shipments of primary plastics machinery (injection molding and extrusion) in North America increased in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to new statistics compiled and reported by the Plastics Industry Association’s Committee on Equipment Statistics (CES).

The preliminary estimate of total shipment value according to reporting companies totaled US$432.7 million in the final quarter of 2022. The 22.3% increase in the fourth quarter illustrated a turnaround from the 14.4% decrease previously shown in the third quarter. Compared to just a year earlier, shipments increased by a total of 4.4%. Of the three primary type of plastics machinery, the value of single-screw extruders increased by the highest amount at 34.6%, followed by injection molding shipments which increased by 25.0% from the third quarter. Shipments of twin-screw extruders increased by 8.9% from the third quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter last year, shipments of single and twin-screw extruders increased 7.6% and 25.0%, respectively. Injection molding shipments were 2.9% higher compared to one year earlier.

Image Credit: Plastics Industry Association

“The U.S. economy pulled through in the second half of 2022,” said Perc Pineda, the Plastics Industry Association’s chief economist. “The increase in plastics machinery shipments in the fourth quarter speaks of the importance of plastics manufacturing and the stable demand for plastic and plastic products in the economy last year. As expected, the increase includes shipments of backlog production resulting from supply chain problems in previous quarters.”

Plastics machinery exports decreased by 10.2% to US$198.8 million in the third quarter. Mexico and Canada remained the top export markets of plastics machinery from the U.S. in the third quarter. The combined exports to USMCA partners totaled US$109.7 million, which represented 65.9% of total plastics machinery exports from the U.S.

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Imports decreased by 12.1% to US$423.6 million in the third quarter. The U.S. plastics machinery trade deficit narrowed from US$260.7 million in the second quarter to US$224.7 million in the third quarter.

“It is still expected that the U.S. economy will continue adjusting to its long-run growth rate after robust recovery in 2021 from the pandemic,” Pineda said. “Strong economic data earlier this year supports the argument of further financial tightening by the Federal Reserve to bring the economy back to an inflation rate that promotes sustainable level of output growth. I had previously said that Q4 2022 shipments would surpass Q3 2022 shipments, and that’s exactly what we got.”

The CES also conducts a quarterly survey to plastics machinery suppliers requesting their perspective of market conditions and expectations for equipment. Survey results showed that there was an increase in the percentage of participants expecting market conditions in the next quarter to remain unchanged or to improve to 35.5% from 31.3%. Likewise, survey participants expect to see market conditions over the next twelve months remain unchanged or improve from 34.4% to 45.2%.

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