Kickstart: Picking the best

Later today, Plastics News will announce its winner for the 2021 Processor of the Year, but if you want a sneak peek at the five finalists, you can find them now at plasticsnews.com.

For the past several years, PN staffers have put together video highlights as part of our visits to the finalists. This year, Erin Sloan, audience engagement editor for PN, collected and edited interviews from those visits.

No hints from me on which company will win (watch for a news alert at 9 p.m. or so) but you can certainly get a good idea what made these finalists stand out by watching the videos.

Comar LLC of based in Voorhees, N.J, is an injection molder and blow molder with 11 manufacturing facilities and more than 1,100 employees, all in North America.

MMI Engineered Solutions of Saline, Mich., is an injection molder, blow molder and toolmaker producing automotive parts in plants in Saline and Warren, Mich., and in Monterrey, Mexico.

Protolabs, based in Maple Plain, Minn., offers 16 manufacturing processes, which fall under four main service offerings: 3D printing, injection molding, sheet metal fabrication and computer numerically controlled machining.

PTI Engineered Plastics opened in Macomb, Mich., in 1984, initially as a prototype tooling and sample molding specialist. Today, PTI is a custom injection molder serving a diverse customer base, including medical, automotive, defense/aerospace and commercial/consumer products companies.

Teel Plastics of Baraboo, Wis., has been best known since 2020 as a key supplier of swab sticks used in COVID-19 test kits. The injection molder and extruder has produced approximately 1.5 billion swabs sticks in the last 19-20 months.

As we move toward the third summer of COVID-19, the consumer demand for outdoor living spaces remains strong. The makers of plastic and composite decks and other outdoor living products have responded by increasing capacity while introducing a wider variety of items to compete against traditional materials.

Outdoor living has never had a brighter moment in the spotlight, Leslie Adkins, vice president of marketing for Trex Co. Inc., told PN's Catherine Kavanaugh for a recent feature on the decking industry.

"While much of what a post-pandemic world will look like long term remains to be seen, one thing is clear: Outdoor living space is more essential than ever," Adkins said. "No matter where or how we live, there is continued demand for flexible outdoor areas where people can safely gather, appreciate nature or simply enjoy a change of scenery."

Check out more on expansions in manufacturing and products here.

As automakers look to add more electric vehicles to their lineup, suppliers are continuing to make investments to supply those EVs.

On March 22, LG Energy Solution said it is investing $1.7 billion to expand its production of lithium-ion polymer batteries and battery packs in Holland, Mich., to supply automakers. That comes two months after LG and General Motors said they would build their third Ultium joint venture battery plant in the U.S., a $2.6 billion investment in Lansing, Mich., and a week after Mercedes said Japanese supplier Envision AESC will build a massive battery plant in Alabama.