Central America

Using a plant in Janesville, WI as a launching pad, Prent Corp. now manufactures in six other locations, including China, Malaysia, Denmark and Singapore. With sales well above $200 million annually, it may be the world's largest custom thermoformer of rigid plastic packaging for the medical, electronics and consumer markets.

Three-year-old MedPlast (Tempe, AZ) is looking for acquisition candidates in healthcare contract manufacturing in Latin America and Asia, and hopes to expand its global footprint within two years.

Former Milacron President Harold Faig.

Well, you know what they say: If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! The same can be said of moldmakers.  While the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) appears to be happy - "Plastics industry applauds free-trade agreements" read one headline in an online industry trade magazine (PlasticsToday's coverage here)- well suffice it to say that doesn't speak for ALL of the plastics industry. Perhaps the U.S.

On hand for the signing of the bills in the Oval Office as well as the discussion of the new trade pacts from the White House Rose Garden, Society of the Plastics Industry's (SPI) Bill Carteaux and Jon Kurrle joined President Barack Obama in praising newly enacted trade deals with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia.

Cultural ties, commerce, and a common border inextricably link the U.S. and Mexico, but while the most recent slowdown in the states was felt within the Mexican plastics manufacturing sector, the overall impact of the 2008-2009 slowdown was less acute, suggesting a decoupling of sorts is underway.

Expo Pack México 2011 (June 21-24; Mexico City) saw a 23% jump in attendance over 2010's show, with the total number of visitors up from 21,402 last year to 26,361 for 2011. The show, in its 26^th edition and organized by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), also netted more than 900 exhibitors covering in excess of 16,000 sq m.

Demand for liquid dairy products (LDP) will surge by around 30% from 2010 to 2020, driven by economic growth, urbanization, and the rising purchasing power of Asia's middle class. A new study by food and beverage packaging company Tetra Pak forecasts that by 2014 packaged milk will outsell "loose" milk in the developing world for the first time, with global demand for all forms of LDP to grow from 270 billion liters in 2010 to around 350 billion liters by 2020.

The Society of Plastics Industry (SPI; Washington DC) has reached a series of agreements with trade media outlets that cover Latin America in a bid to augment the participation of Latin American plastics professionals at NPE 2012 (Orlando; April 1-5, 2012).

Costa Rica has in recent years become a hotbed for medical device OEMs that serve the Latin America market, and with that come suppliers to those OEMs. The most recent expansion announcement comes from molder and contract manufacturer GW Plastics (Bethel, VT), which has established a majority-owned joint venture with Corprosemm Corp. (Cartago, Costa Rica).

Spot resin trading picked up as the month drew to a close, with offers fairly heavy in the first part of the week, but petering out ahead of the long holiday weekend. Spot-trading platform, The Plastics Exchange (TPE), noted that resin prices were mostly steady to lower and have come off significantly from the historic highs seen earlier in May. Polyethylene's $0.05/lb price increase was never fully implemented and will be attempted again in June.