It was a great Q1 for plastics

It has been 50 years since Mr. McGuire imparted his now-famous piece of advice to college graduate Benjamin Braddock. “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics,” said McGuire in the film, The Graduate. The exchange was meant as social satire and was played for laughs, but, strangely, it has become prophetic over the decades. We saw that again this week as companies reported their first quarter earnings.

Bayer (Leverkusen, Germany) reported a 38% net jump in net profit for Q1, “boosted by growth at its separated specialty plastics unit, while raising its outlook for the full year,” writes MarketWatch in an article published today.

“Net profit for the three months ended March was €2.08 billion ($2.27 billion), compared with €1.51 billion during the same period last year, beating analysts' forecasts,” reports Christopher Alessi. The company now expects sales to increase to approximately €51 billion in 2017; they were previously forecast to reach around €49 billion.

Dow Chemical (Midland, MI) also reported a significant rise in first-quarter revenue in the plastics unit, jumping 21% to $5 billion, writes BloombergMarkets. That’s especially good news in light of the $79 billion merger with DuPont, which is expected to close in late summer. “Within 18 months after closing, Dow and DuPont plan to split the company into three publicly traded companies. Dow’s plastics business will serve as the anchor of the material science company,” writes Jack Kaskey in BloombergMarkets.

“The [plastics] business has benefited this decade from U.S. fracking that has unleashed abundant natural-gas liquids, such as ethane, making the country among the most profitable places to manufacture ethylene and plastics such as polyethylene,” adds Kaskey.

All of that, plus the release this week of a 4K restoration of The Graduate to mark the film’s 50th anniversary, just puts me in a good mood. And you?