North American plastics machinery shipments posted a strong year-on-year increase in the third quarter of 2017, according to the latest figures released by the Plastics Industry Association’s (Washington, D.C. / USA; www.plasticsindustry.org) Committee on Equipment Statistics (CES).

Shipments of injection moulding, extrusion and blow moulding equipment in Q3 were preliminarily estimated at USD 350.9m (EUR 293.9m), 20.4% up on the same period in 2016 when they were valued at USD 291.3m. Q3 2017 volumes were also 4% higher than the previous quarter, when they totalled USD 337.2m. The value of twin-screw extruder shipments in Q3 jumped by 61% year-on-year with injection moulding machinery also climbing by 21%, however the value of single-screw extruder shipments dropped by 2%.

Bill Wood, an analyst with Mountaintop Economics & Research (Greenfield, Massachusetts / USA) that carried out the survey, said, “Quarterly gains of 20% will not be sustained going forward, but the plastics industry is entering the new year with more momentum than it did a year ago. I still expect the underlying economic fundamentals in the US to push higher and global demand will also improve in 2018.” Respondents to the Q3 poll were slightly more optimistic in their outlook, with 87% expecting market conditions to remain stable or improve during the next year compared with 86% in Q2.

For the year ahead, US plastics machinery suppliers had a bit more confidence in the North American market but their outlook was little changed for Latin America and Europe. Their expectations for Mexico declined but there was a big increase in positive sentiment for Asia.

Packaging is forecast to be the strongest end-market in the coming year and the outlook for demand in the electronics sector also improved. Predictions for all other major end-markets was for steady-to-better conditions.