Steady growth key for top injection molders

The top 100 ranking of North American injection molders appears in this week's Plastics News, with combined sales of $313.5 billion for fiscal year 2022.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index for 2022 rose 6.5 percent. The top five resins from our ranking saw average material costs go up 11.5 percent. So, by the numbers, these figures reveal a challenging year for molders. And yet our top 100 gained $1.4 billion in sales. That's a 4.9 percent gain.

In terms of average sales per company, those numbers are up, $313 million vs. $302 million over the 2021 average.

Six acquisitions are noted, including the biggest gain of 567 percent, when No. 49, Creative Liquid Coatings Inc., acquired the assets of CK Technologies from Cascade Engineering Inc. last year.

Expansions seem to be the hot topic for this current year, 2023. Check out our industry coverage.

• Automotive, medical and consumer products remain the biggest end markets.

• Berry Global Inc., Engineered Plastic Components Inc. and Flex-N-Gate Corp. top the list of companies with the most plant locations.

• Evco Plastics, AdvancTek and Innovative Injection Technologies Inc. hit the top spots for firms with the most presses with a clamp-tonnage range of 2,000 or more.

• Creative Liquid Coatings Inc. of Kendallville, Ind., moved up 157 spaces to rank at No. 49.

• AdvancTek, CVG division of New Albany, Ohio, moved up 86 spaces to rank at No. 90.

• Teamvantage Molding LLC of Forest Lake, Minn., moved up 65 spaces to rank at No. 77.

• KB Components of Oldcastle, Ontario, moved up 51 spaces to rank at No. 74.

• Parkway Products LLC of Greenville, S.C., moved up 13 spaces to rank at No. 62.

• Happy 50th anniversary to Tessy Plastics Corp. of Skaneateles, N.Y.

• Happy 70th anniversary to Hoffer Plastics Corp.

In next week's issue, we will rank the "small" injection molders. Notably, we've added more than 20 molders to the list this year.

If you work for a company that is missing from the ranking, we would like to include you next time. Just send a note to me at [email protected] or mail your information to Plastics News, P.O. Box 790, Tallmadge, Ohio 44278.

Hollee Keller is Plastics News' editorial research coordinator and author of the All Things Data blog. Follow her on Twitter @holleekeller.