Kickstart: A boom for medical, packaging

It should come as no big surprise to hear that plastics used in medical and packaging are in big demand. Now we're starting to get an idea of just how big that demand has been.

Materials giant Covestro AG's South Deerfield, Mass., polycarbonate film plant, which makes material for medical face shields, saw a year's worth of orders in just two months.

Packaging company Silgan Holdings Inc., which is a top 10 processor in North America for blow molding and injection molding, saw sales of its pumps and dispensers in the closures unit rise by 5 percent for the quarter, while plastic containers rose by 6 percent.

Spartech LLC has been running at full capacity, and some lines are running 24/7 to produce material, used in shields, intubation boxes and other medical items.

"Some of these medical compounds are standard products for us, but we've seen changes in order sizes and timing," Rich Rogers, plant manager at Covestro's compounding plant in Newark, Ohio, said. "We're getting a lot of rush orders for larger amounts than usual."

The workers at two Braskem Americas plants are getting a hero's reaction.

Crews at Marcus Hook, Pa., just finished a 28-day shift to ensure polypropylene production continued uninterrupted and two shifts at Neal, W.Va., are slated to work through April 29.

Plastics News first told you about the project in early April.

Now a wider audience is finding out about it, including via The Washington Post, where their story was one of the most popular on the website April 23.

We've all been doing a lot more business via internet meetings: Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Skype and even FaceTime.

And technology is great for that.

But let me put in a word for the virtual cocktail hour. Not just with co-workers, but with the people you'd normally be meeting for coffee or a drink or a golf game or a run through the park.

In normal world, these are the people who you can laugh with, or tell stories about your spouse's weird habits, or whatever your boss has gotten up to lately.

Each Tuesday at 7 p.m., a group of ladies I'd normally see once or twice a week gather via laptop and iPad. Two of them live just a mile from me, but I haven't seen them since early March. A couple others are across town. One is in northern Michigan looking after her mother.

But for an hour or so, we gather from our various locations to joke and laugh (and give Jackie crap about how she can never seem to get her audio right) and it feels ... normal.

It's not perfect. Screens freeze, WiFi is sometimes spotty. But until we can be together in person again, it's worth it. And I'm sure the boss won't mind if you use your work laptop for some personal recovery.