This week we published part two of our annual North American injection molders ranking. These 477 firms represent $8.2 billion in related sales.
Let's take a look at some numbers behind the full list.
Some 579 firms are reported with North American injection molding sales of $37.2 billion for fiscal year 2018. That is a 0.8 percent increase over last year. Do you think that is low? Well, it may be good news considering average production in the North American automotive sector was down 2.4 percent. Well over half of our ranked firms serve the auto market.
In addition, changes in resin pricing were mixed last year, with ABS up 4.7 percent, polypropylene up 17 percent, PVC up 6.6 percent and polyethylene down 12 percent.
Flat sales ruled the day with 63 percent of firms reported no change over the 2017 fiscal year. However, nearly 29 percent had growth at an average of 15 percent. That number is skewed a bit by acquisitions, 15 of which are reported in the ranking footnotes.
Nine percent is the median growth rate, meaning only half the companies were above 9 percent growth. The top two dollar gains are from the automotive and packaging sectors.
Speaking of packaging, look out for next year's list where we expect the combination of Berry Global Inc. and Letica Corp. to top the chart. Berry Global Inc. made an offer to acquire Letica Corp.'s parent, RPC Group plc, in March. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
So who tops the chart in part two? These are the top firms in this week's group:
• Mar-Bal Inc. of Chagrin Falls, Ohio
• PSI Molded Plastics of Wolfeboro, N.H.
• Lakeside Plastics Ltd. of Oldcastle, Ontario.
• Wilbert Plastic Services Inc. of Belmont, N.C.
• Clarion Technologies Inc. of Holland, Mich.
• ITW Medical Products of Hebron, Ill.
• Spectrum Plastics Group of Alpharetta, Ga.
• Thomson Plastics Inc. of Thomson, Ga.
• Plastech Corp. of Rush City, Minn.
• Carclo Technical Plastics of Latrobe, Pa.
Let's take a look at the breakout in the size of our companies:
