WASHINGTON: Machinery shipments posted another strong performance in the third quarter of 2015, according to the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.’s Committee on Equipment Statistics.
Year-to-date, shipments of primary machinery is almost exactly the same as it was during the first nine months of 2014 — in other words, at a strong level, SPI reported.
The plastics industry is growing faster than other parts of the manufacturing economy, said plastics economist Bill Wood, who reports on the machinery markers for the CES.
“The trend in the CES shipments data flattened out in the middle of 2015, but at a high level,” Wood said. “Activity levels in the U.S. manufacturing sector slowed in the third quarter, and plastics machinery suppliers felt the effects. But the plastics industry continues to expand faster than many other industrial segments.” Washington-based SPI reported the third-quarter machinery data on Dec. 3.
According to SPI, third-quarter shipments of all primary plastics equipment from companies that reported the data — injection molding presses, blow molding machines and single-screw and twin-screw extruders — totaled $300.6 million. That was a small gain of 0.8 percent from the total of $298.4 million in the second quarter of 2015, but it was a decline of 4.6 percent when compared to the year-ago third quarter of 2014.
Breaking out the numbers by type of machine, SPI’s CES reports that the value of injection molding machinery declined 2.4 percent in the third quarter from the year-earlier quarter.
Single-screw extruders increased by 3.3 percent. The value of twin-screw extruders dropped 37.6 percent. Estimated shipments of blow molding machines declined 9 percent. For auxiliary equipment, SPI said new bookings increased 9.8 percent in the third quarter, from the third quarter of 2014, to total $118.8 million.
