With this week's publication of the smaller North American injection molders ranking, we can add another $9.2 billion to the combined sales total for 2022. That brings the sales total for the entire ranking of 593 companies up to $40.6 billion. That is up 5 percent over the previous year. As reported last week, the industry continues to grow.
Passing on higher costs to customers is the biggest factor in the gains that we see, but that doesn't account for all of it. U.S. and Mexico saw automotive production growth, according to reports from our sister publication Automotive News. The medical end market continues to grow and innovate. Traditional packaging is getting a bit of a smackdown, but there is no slowing trend in production.
Only five companies from last year's list have quietly closed — much fewer than previous booming years have seen.
Less than a quarter of the total related sales are from firms with less than $79 million. These smaller-in-sales-but-much-bigger-in-numbers companies represent 83 percent of the total count.
With nearly 700 plant locations, this week's list of molders is the largest grouping of processors we cover in our annual ranking issues. So, which of them take the top spots this week?
