Kickstart: Optimism and caution for machinery makers

Are machine manufacturers optimists?

In her annual outlook for the machinery side of the industry, Plastics News' Catherine Kavanaugh heard from a lot of companies that are seeing signs of a recovery. That doesn't necessarily mean there's a sudden burst of sales, but rather it indicates that booked business for 2025 is stronger, especially when compared with sluggish activity in late 2023 and into 2024.

"It wasn't until the third quarter [of 2024] going into the fourth that we're starting to pick up some additional businesses," Fred Piercy, president of blow molding machinery maker R&B Plastics Machinery LLC told Catherine.

It's hard to get an exact estimate of equipment sales from 2024 and even harder to guess at what those numbers mean for the coming months. The best estimate from PN is that sales in North America will be about the same in 2024 as they were in 2023. But perhaps the more positive outlook is because sales are starting to climb at the end of this year while a year ago activity was sliding. That has some corporate leaders, including Kim Ryan, the CEO of Hillenbrand Inc. — the parent company of Milacron, Mold Masters and DME — cautious.

"Although this quarter's orders slightly exceeded our expectations, external market indicators, such as machine utilization and mold making activity, remained relatively soft, and we've yet to see signs of a sustained recovery in demand," Ryan said.

During its quarterly conference call with investors on Nov. 12, Pactiv Evergreen Inc. officials spoke about being positioned for "an important milestone as we focus on our core North American converting operations and progress on our transition."

The subject, at that time, was that Pactiv Evergreen had sold off its last remaining paper mill, a site in Arkansas, so it could take on products with more potential for growth.

An announcement on Dec. 9 that the Illinois-based Pactiv Evergreen was to be acquired by Novolex for $6.7 billion points to a far bigger transition than hinted at in November, but one that will still position the company's products for shifting consumer demands. And Pactiv Evergreen President and CEO Michael King used similar wording to describe the process.

"This milestone is a testament to our talented employees and Pactiv Evergreen's inherent value," he said. "Over the past three years, we've made significant progress on our transformation. … We look forward to this next exciting chapter."

Yvonne van der Laan, executive vice president of circular and low carbon solutions at LyondellBasell (LYB), has been named the winner of the 2024 Winthrop-Sears Award by The Chemists' Club.

The award, created in 1970, is "presented annually to recognize individuals who, through their entrepreneurial achievement, have contributed to the vitality of the chemical industry and the betterment of humanity," The Chemists' Club writes.

Van der Laan has been involved with LYB's development of its chemical recycling technology MoReTec, our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes. The first MoReTec facility is planned for Wesseling, Germany.