Pipe, profile and tubing extruders were ranked in 1991 alongside film and sheet extruders. These each got their own issues the following year.
To date, we've listed 362 unique firms making top products such as automotive trim, cable, decking, fencing, hoses, lumber, pipe, tubing, vinyl siding and window profiles.
We published our 19th edition in July this year, marking $324.9 billion in sales for the history of this ranking. Pipe sales take the largest chunk with $157.3 billion, profile sales follow closely with $144.5 billion and tubing ever increasing its stake with $23 billion in sales.
In 1999, the average annual sales per firm were $42.8 million. That has jumped 145 percent to our latest figure of $105 million.
Each year, about 10 percent of our ranked firms include a footnote related to their activities that year. But 2000 and 2006 were banner years, well above average. Some of the highlights those years included the largest companies in our ranking: the merger of Eagle Pacific Industries Inc. and Pacific Western Extruded Plastics Co. and the acquisition of Royal Group Technologies Ltd. by Georgia Gulf Corp.