At Plastimagen, Mexico's plastics industry shows growth and resilience

Mexico City — Pounding the aisles of Plastimagen México 2023 in the second week of November, it was hard to ignore the generally positive vibes emanating from many of the exhibiting companies' booths.

"It's the same as Plastimagen 2019," said Raúl Mendoza, managing director of trade association Anipac (Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico A.C.), referring to the 870 participating companies' stands and the crowds thronging a large number of them. The 300-member association had a pavilion at the show.

Occupying 430,000 square feet, the four-day expo at the Centro Citibanamex in the north of Mexico City was quiet on the first two days but attendance picked up considerably on the third and fourth days.

José Navarro Meneses, managing director of Tarsus México, which owns and organizes the event, said the attendance was 27,818 and that 67 percent of the space for the 2025 edition had already been sold. He and the Tarsus Group's head office in London "are very happy with the outcome," he added.

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It seems likely that Tarsus's name will disappear from the credits going forward. Informa plc, a British publishing, business intelligence and exhibitions group listed on the London Stock Exchange, acquired it in a $940 million deal, which was announced in May. Navarro will remain with Tarsus's new owners, he said.

"This [show] demonstrates the strength of the [Mexican plastics] industry," Anipac's Mendoza remarked on day three, adding that he expects the industry to grow by 5 percent in 2023. Growth was between 3-4 percent in 2022, he said.

It's a far cry from the dark days of March, 2021, when Anipac President Aldimir Torres declared in a news conference that the industry in Mexico had shrunk 9 percent in 2020 and was in crisis mode.

Torres, who remains in the post, said at the time that economic, social and health crises had impacted the industry dramatically. COVID-19 "has changed our lives," he said.

Mendoza cited automotive, electrical appliances, packaging and nearshoring as being among the sectors driving the industry's resurgence. Plastics account for 3 percent of Mexico's manufacturing GDP, he said. A growing trend for electric and hybrid injection molding machines had also been apparent at Plastimagen.

Alexander Kramer, a partner in Sumitomo (SHI) Demag distributor Avance Industrial SA de CV, confirmed the trend. He said 80 percent of all injection molding presses up to 500 metric tons sold in Mexico are all electric.

"Eighty percent of Sumitomo Demag sales up to 500 tons are electric, which is a similar number we are experiencing in Mexico this year," he said.

"There are many projects where customers are considering only electrical machines as an option."

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Kramer's father and two partners founded Avance Industrial in 1963. Today the company is wholly owned by the Kramers.

Speaking at Plastimagen, Kramer said Avance sold several Sumitomo machines in the first three days of the show to customers from the packaging and automotive industries.

Asked for his thoughts on the current Mexican federal government, he replied:

"Mexico depends on the strength of the United States' economy. Since the U.S. economy is doing relatively well, Mexico is doing well, even with the government we have."

On the same subject, Scott Greer, plastics manager within the marketing and technical services side of Eckart America Corp., based in Louisville, Ky., said: "Mexico is a very resilient country. It is the people who will see that the country gets through times of political uncertainty… Mexico will survive."