PETnews 6 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 10/21 www.petpla.net U.S. plastics industry trade improves in 2021 after 2020 pandemic slump The Plastics Industry Association released its annual Global Trends report at the 27th Fakuma International trade fair for plastics processing. The report, which analyses trade data from all of 2020 and the fi rst six months of 2021, paints a complex but promising portrait of the U.S. plastics industry in the international market. For those around the world interested in the American plastics market, the global trends report and its accompanying dataset provides a comprehensive account of U.S. plastics exports to and imports from around the world in each of the four categories of the plastics industry – resin, products, machinery and moulds. According to the report, Mexico and Canada remained the U.S. plastics industry’s largest export markets. In 2020, the industry exported $13.7 billion to Mexico and $11.7 billion to Canada, maintaining its largest trade surplus - $8.2 billion - with Mexico. The coronavirus pandemic caused the merchandise trade to decline. In 2020, total U.S. plastics industry exports fell 8.2%, and imports were 1.8% above 2019. The report found that the U.S. plastics industry had a trade defi cit of $5.5 billion last year. For many years, the plastics industry enjoyed a trade surplus, which in 2019 was $727 million. Last year, the U.S. had an $18.6 billion surplus in resin. The U.S. plastics industry had a $15.3 billion defi cit with China - the third-largest export market of the U.S. plastics industry. However, the U.S. had a $3.0 billion trade surplus with China with resin. China is still the world’s largest resin buyer and a large importer of U.S.-produced resins. The 2021 Global Trends report also explores a broader international view of plastics, covering production, consumption and more details of important trading partners for the U.S. It also discusses apparent consumption, a broad measure of the domestic market size. U.S. apparent consumption of plastic products fell marginally by 0.1% to $288.4 billion in 2020. “Although the merchandise trade outlook is much brighter this year, uncertainties remain and depend largely on global economic recovery. While the U.S. plastics industry trade volume rose 27.9% in the fi rst six months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, it still has a plastics trade defi cit,” said the association’s Chief Economist Perc Pineda, PhD “The large and growing plastics industry outside the U.S. will continue to compete with the U.S. for overseas markets as well as for their own domestic markets.” Canada and Mexico will continue to be the two largest export markets and are also the top sources of U.S. plastics imports. Proximity matters. The manufacturing sector’s supply chain in these countries was strengthened with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). The updated free trade pact, United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), should further enhance trade among the three countries, which is important particularly as global manufacturing is experiencing supply chain diffi culties. The 2021 complete Global Trends report is available to download for free for members and is available for purchase to non-members. www.plasticsindustry.org Matthias Hermle hands over the CEO position of IMD Ltd. to Marc Wymann Marc Wymann will take over as the new CEO of IMD AG on November 1, 2021. After a transition period of three months, he will take over the executive lead from company founder, Matthias Hermle. Matthias Hermle will then focus on the strategic area of IMD Ltd. and CAPrint Ltd. as active Chairman of the Board of Directors and support innovations. IMD Ltd. is in a good position, stable and ready to grow further. After more than 25 years in the lead of IMD Ltd., the perfect time has come for Matthias Hermle to hand over into new hands and take care of the strategic area. He will actively support the management in order to align IMD Ltd. well for the future in the medium and long term. He sees a lot of potential in approaching innovations differently. With Marc Wymann, he has found a successor who fi ts perfectly into the IMD family. With his passion for technology and sales, a fl air for employee management, business know-how and a backpack full of management experience, he is ideally equipped to lead the IMD family into the future together with the well established management team and the employees. “I’m not coming to turn everything upside down, I’m coming to support and develop what already exists», tells Marc Wymann about his goals. During his introduction period, he fi rst wants to get to know the company with all its employees, customers, processes and all the other exciting facets and understand how the market works. His main goal is to continue the company, which has been successfully built up over the past 25 years, in the spirit of the company’s founder, to optimise where reasonable and to break new ground where appropriate. www.imdvista.ch Matthias Hermle (left) hands over the CEO position of IMD Ltd. to Marc Wymann (right). The company owner and founder, Matthias Hermle, will focus on his role as active Chairman of the Board of Directors of IMD Ltd. and CAPrint Ltd.
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