U.S. plastics machinery shipments drop 12 per cent in Q4 2007: SPI

U.S. manufacturers and importers of primary plastics machinery and equipment shipped $210 million worth of primary machinery (excluding components and auxiliary equipment) in the fourth quarter 2007, according to the latest equipment statistics released by the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI)

This is eight per cent lower than the $228 million shipped in the third quarter of 2007.

Economist Bill Wood, who provided the analysis for SPI’s report, forecasts that “the negative growth rate in the overall equipment spending data will persist through the first half of 2008, but investment is expected to rebound gradually in the second half of the year.”

According to other data included in the report, auxiliary equipment bookings totaled $80.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 a one per cent increase when compared with the $79.4 million booked in the fourth quarter of 2006; extrusion machinery shipments in the fourth quarter 2007 totaled $31.5 million, which is 20 per cent lower than the $39.5 million shipped during the same time period of 2006; there were 26 new blow molding machinery units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2007 –18 fewer than were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2006, but one more than the number shipped in the third quarter of 2007; and injection molding machinery shipments totaled 722 units in the fourth quarter of 2007, a decrease of 13 percent from the 827 units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The report can be found online at SPI’s Plastics Industry Store. The cost is free for members. Nonmembers can purchase the reports at a cost of US$580 for the Annual Report (includes the fourth quarter report) or US$250 for an individual quarterly report.