Modern Plastics Worldwide - July/August 2009 - dae uptlax

FIRST LOOK
Daily news and features at mpw.plasticstoday.com
In Brief
Berry goes WOW
Gloucester Engineering announced that
Berry Plastics will take delivery of Gloucester’s
first WOW Winder, specifically designed
for stretch-film applications and said to be
able to run hand-wrap rolls more than 50%
faster than conventional winders. More on that
winder and competitive ones in this issue’s
Processing Trends (p. 15).
Teijin exits NatureWorks
Agriculture and food major Cargill has
bought back the 50% share in NatureWorks
acquired in 2007 by Japan’s Teijin Ltd., with
Teijin saying it will focus its bioplastics’
development effort on Biofront, the highheat-resistant
bioplastic it has developed.
Nissei opens China plant
Nissei Plastic Industrial (Nagano, Japan) has
set up a manufacturing operation in China,
its first in that country, and there will start
assembling machines based on components
imported from Japan. A competitor,
Sumitomo Demag, is investing €50 million
at its two facilities in Germany, and shutting
its manufacturing facility in the U.S.
Get the global angle on industry
developments via daily updates at
mpw.plasticstoday.com.
All these stories, the magazine,
blogs, forums, and much more.
What you had to say
NPE as a springboard to a
recovery?
It is almost impossible to gauge a trade
show’s value while it is in progress, let alone
to determine its payback time, but based on
hundreds of talks and
meetings with exhibitors
at June’s NPE show in
Chicago, the decision to
exhibit in that not-inexpensive
town in what
are decidedly difficult
economic conditions
was worth it.
John Moisson, president
at distributor Jamplast
Inc.; Steve London,
COO at blowmolding
machine manufacturer
Bekum America Corp.;
; Takanori Taresawa, president of Nissei
America Inc.: these and other exhibitors
across the entire industry spectrum agreed
that the investment in NPE was a wise
one. Expectations going into the show
were low, and the last day of the event was
sparsely attended, but the show’s organizer,
The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI),
reported that processors and others representing
nearly 19,000 companies attended
the event. Some deals were concluded at the
show floor, to include some multimillion
“To those who couldn’t make the show due to company
travel restrictions—that is certainly unfortunate. There were
many great products being offered that could potentially
show a positive return on investment had they been able
to attend and learn about these. The information is still out
there, it’ll just take more research to get it now.”
A forum visitor commenting on the NPE tradeshow; join the discussion at
plasticstoday.com/mpw.
Source: Processors’ responses to a recent
weekly poll at mpw.plasticstoday.com. Polls
change weekly; let your (digital) voice be heard.
The crowd in the South Hall of McCormick
Place during NPE2009. (Courtesy SPI)
dollar ones for film extrusion lines.
The preliminary total of visitor registrations
by the close of the show on June
26 was 44,000. While
this was about 30%
below the corresponding
number of attendees
for NPE2006, the number
of companies represented
by registrants
was down only 17%,
according to William
Carteaux, president and
CEO of SPI.
“With very difficult
economic times and
travel reductions caused
by concerns about the
H1N1 pandemic, it came as no surprise
that attendee delegations were smaller than
in 2006, but those company representatives
that did come to NPE2009 were typically
significant players with real purchasing
power,” Careaux said in a statement
released by SPI.
It remains to be seen whether the event
truly will serve as a springboard to the
industry’s recovery, or whether positive discussions
in Chicago will be washed away by
budgetary restrictions at processors.
mpw.plasticstoday.com
Polling news
10 JULY/AUGUST 2009 • MODERN PLASTICS WORLDWIDE mpw.plasticstoday.com
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Polling News
Is there a labor shortage of
skilled trades such as machinists,
programmers and welders?
48%
Yes, I have positions I could fill
with qualified applicants.
No, I have more employees
than I need.
We don’t use workers of
that kind.
There might be a shortage
in a few years.
26%
18%
8%