Time for our North American Pipe, Profile & Tubing Extruders ranking. In this week's issue, we rank the 2019 fiscal results, which are up 3.3 percent vs. the previous year, adding about $688 million to mark $21.9 billion in related sales.
Those numbers break out to 50 percent pipe, 44 percent profile and 6 percent tubing, with the average sales per firm up 6.4 percent. All in all, a great year.
We've noted seven acquisitions in the top 100 firms, the biggest impacted was the acquisition of Vartek LLC assets by No. 87, American Vinyl Co. of Hialeah, Fla., giving them a 73 percent gain. For those firms who volunteered data, the average increase in sales was 20 percent, that's an amazing number.
So, who else gained? Decking and custom extruders saw the largest growth, in fact, these sectors skewed the results by 8 points. High density polyethylene pipe was at the other end with nearly all firm showing declines in related product sales.
The building and construction sectors were also growing in 2019. Window and door shipments were up 2.7 percent with patio doors doing very well.
The National Association of Home Builders reported a favorable remodeling market, which should see a significant increase for 2020 with the spotlight on stay at home projects during the pandemic. The U.S. Census Bureau details on housing starts has that market up 3.2 percent.
In resin pricing, most grades had small declines. Polypropylene, however, dropped a whopping 19 percent due to resin companies seeing historic high levels from 2015-18 during short supply conditions.
The recent release of the Paycheck Protection Program loan data by the Small Business Administration included 70 of our ranked firms in the dollar category of $150,000 and above. These 70 companies represent a range of $53 million to $124 million in stimulus money, and are detailed in this map by headquarters' state.
Biggest movers for this year's ranking:
• United Poly Systems LLC of Springfield, Mo., moved up 38 spaces to rank at 48.
• American Vinyl Co. of Hialeah, Fla., moved up 30 spaces to No. 87.
• Barbour Plastics Inc. of Brockton, Mass., moved up 20 to No. 85.
• Alpha Plastics Solutions Inc. of Muskego, Wis., climbed 15 spaces to rank at 182.
• Jaeger-Unitek Sealing Solutions Inc. of La Porte, Ind., moved up 12 to No. 114.
• NewAge Industries Inc. of Southampton, Pa., rose 11 spaces to 41.
• Trim-Tex Inc. of Lincolnwood, Ill., is up 11 to No. 68.
• Ultra Tech Extrusions of Tennessee Inc. of Rocky Top, Tenn., up 11 No. 141.
• PlasTech Corp. of Addison, Texas, moved up 10 spaces to rank at number 133.
• Tangent Technologies LLC of Aurora, Ill., rose 10 spaces to No. 45.
• Engineered Profiles LLC of Columbus, Ohio, climbed 10 spaces No. 58.