Chicago the focus for Ohio's polymer industry

Among the show goers crowding McCormick''s halls on Monday of NPE was Ohio Lt. Governor Bruce Johnson, attending the triennial event in support of the Ohio polymer industry, the nation''s largest. "It''s a huge show for an American trade show," Johnson said. "Very impressive, with a lot of great companies there."

In addition to walking the floor, Johnson attended a reception on Monday, June 19 sponsored by the Ohio polymer industry. "We''re pitching the state as an ideal place to locate from a plastics manufacturing perspective."

Johnson has served as the state''s development director since 2001, heading efforts to promote job creation and retention. He also is the chair of the Third Frontier Commission, which is a 10-year $1.1 billion initiative to expand research and innovation in polymers and other industries within Ohio, securing the jobs of the future for the state.

Johnson said the program, as well as outreach at shows like NPE, is beginning to pay off, and that the plastics industry in Ohio, which employs 142,000 at 2800 businesses, is stable as well. "It''s heading in the right direction," Johnson said of plastics manufacturing in the state. "A lot of people like to measure mature industries by the number of employees, but the cycle is when they''re startup industries they''re growing quickly. Then after a period of time, they start leveling off and the race is to get as little labor input as possible. That''s what''s happening in a lot of traditional injection molding type plastics organizations. We want to make sure Ohio is on the cutting edge of new product development in polymer science."