US plastics sector poised for growth

This is a good time of year to look ahead and predict what business will look like in 2013. We just went through the budgeting process, and I'm sure many Plastic Blog readers have done the same. When it comes to plastics markets, one of the best-known economists is Bill Wood, head of Mountaintop Economics & Research Inc. in Greenfield, Mass. Wood posted a pretty optimistic item today on MoldMaking Technology's blog that's worth sharing, headlined "Forecast for Plastics Products: Momentum Will Build in Second Half of 2013." There's quite a bit there, including Wood's take on resin pricing and key end markets. On another key statistic, capacity utilization, Wood says: "The industry's capacity utilization rate will hold mostly steady at current levels through the first quarter of 2013, and it will then rise. In 2013, the total volume of plastics products manufactured in the U.S. will grow by 5 percent and the capacity utilization rate will exceed 80 percent by year's end." I'm sure you can find an economist or two who disagrees -- insert your favorite joke about economists here. But that still sounds like pretty good news to me.