Kickstart: Robots and reshoring

Record-breaking sales for industrial robots in the first quarter of 2022 are important for more than the makers of automation equipment.

Plastics News Economics Editor Bill Wood said those numbers are a good indication that American manufacturers are ramping up for growth at home.

"This is how we reshore," he says. "This is how we repair and rebuild our supply chains. This is how we spur growth in the overall economy."

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) said in a May 31 news release that North American companies purchased 11,595 robots, sold at a value of $646 million, in the first three months of 2022, Catherine Kavanaugh writes.

Plastics and rubber industries boosted purchasing by 29 percent vs. the same period in 2021.

Those investments also represent good news on a global scale, Bill said, looking at the sales through an economics perspective.

"This is how we lower our collective carbon footprints and mitigate climate change," he said. "To be sure, there is [disruption], but the net result is hugely positive. I believe it is also a strategic imperative given the current geopolitical landscape."

You can get more from Bill Wood through his monthly Numbers That Matter column or Numbers That Matter Live, an editorial livestream that is free for subscribers.

Today marks the start of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, and once again it looks like a busy one. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said there is a 65 percent chance it will be an above-normal season vs. a 10 percent chance of a below-normal season.

NOAA is forecasting a likely range of 14-21 named storms with up to 10 of them becoming hurricanes and between three and six of those storms classified as major.

With the bulk of U.S. resin production on the Gulf Coast, hurricanes can have a big impact on plastics processors far outside of the hurricane zone. Just consider Laura and Delta, two storms that hit the Louisiana region in 2020, forcing multiple resin and feedstock plants to close, while Hurricane Ida in 2021 impacted PVC production.

The Pacific hurricane season began May 15 and has already seen its first named storm, Agatha, hit Mexico.

There's just a little more than two weeks left to submit yourself or someone you know for Women Breaking the Mold for 2022.

The profiles of women who are leading the industry currently and those who are now rising in the industry will run in the July 25 print edition of Plastics News. Nominations submitted at plasticsnews.com/wbmsurvey will be used to help us find and profile women in the industry, with Jordan Vitick, PN's special projects editor, leading the effort.

You can find all of the profiles from the 2021 Women Breaking the Mold at plasticsnews.com/topic/women-breaking-mold. The Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum is set for Nov. 14-15 in Nashville, Tenn.