Freedonia, the international industry research company recently published a new study on the global long-term market trends within plastics industry. The study concludes the flexible packaging is one of the main segments that are going to lead the growth within the plastic industry.

After the temporary summer hikes the resin prices are indicating a definitely gloomier mood of the industry. PlasticNews.com made a summary of the overall impact of the North American recession on the resin prices in their most recent commodity review.  In their account, the resin prices dropped back to the year 2003 levels. Of course, there is a big underlying question, that the given price level reflects to a decreased market demand, that has put the industry under tremendous pressure to downsize.

Resin prices are levelling off after some summer hikes. Summer usually brings resin price hikes of variable magnitudes. This summer was not an exception. Some of the usual factors applied, such as higher feedstock prices caused by higher fuel prices, and higher demand for feedstock for PET. Unique factor of this summer hike was the demand hike for PE caused by increased level of North American Chine export demand. Also there were some planned and unplanned outages at refineries.

On September 18, 2009, Finance Minister for the Canadian government, Jim Flaherty, made an announcement on planned elimination of all tariffs on imported manufacturing equipment. At the beginning of the year, there was already a legislative change introduced that lifted some of the import tariffs.

The Middle East has become a key growth catalyst in the global plastics trade throughout the last couple of years. According to local market intelligence, the region's plastics industry is projected to achieve an annual growth rate of up to 30 per cent over the next five years.

An in-depth study of plastics waste bags was carried out by the Heidelberg's Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) in Germany. It concludes that the traditional polyester resins are less damaging for the environment than the biodegradable versions currently available in Europe.

Beside Bio (meaning degradable and produced of sustainable materials), the other big buzzword in the plastics industry is Nanotechnology.

The new president of CPIA introduced a communication program, the Intelligent Plastics. The goal of the campaign is to demonstrate the immense economic, social and environmental contributions of the industry and create a more hospitable environment for plastics industry in Canada. Below is an excerpt from CPIA’s news release, introducing the goals of the campaign and interviewing the president of CPIA, Mr. Badger.

Schlumpf Inc., the material handling technology company developed a new roll dolly product.  The product is a very exciting solution for handling narrow web rolls in a converting line.

The dominant source of starch used for bioplastics is corn in North America,  the grain which is grown and harvested in the greatest volume in the USA and Mexico.  Because of the growing demand for corn by the bio-fuel industry there is an increasing pressure to develop new sources for plastic starch.