Molds,molding machinery seeing new growth

Some molders are taking a renewed look at improving productivity by using newer equipment, and Lawrence attributes that to the fact that, given the challenges of expanding brick-and-mortar plants and hiring skilled labor, they’re looking for gains that new machinery offers. “If there’s a way to get more plant capacity by using it efficiently, that’s the way people are going, so we’re seeing renewed activity in that area.

And there is still a huge focus on energy efficiency in the automotive market, which means the plastics industry has new opportunities for weight reduction in vehicles, and alternative fuel vehicles as well.” With that shift, Lawrence notes there are increased volumes of quoting activity in the automotive arena among Milacron’s and DME’s customers. “We know that a number of customers in the automotive environment are trying to get as much production as they can in their facilities and keep cost footprint where it is,” says Lawrence. “There’s a little more activity in the project [program] area with some uptick in quoting and in orders.

“On the DME [moldmaking] front,” he continues, “we’ve seen a nice increase in project activity where molders and moldmakers are beginning to look at automotive projects, and we think that trend will likely continue.”

Lawrence says that he spent some time in Europe recently, and that “interestingly, everybody seems to have had a strong second quarter and most are relatively comfortable that business levels will remain fairly steady throughout 2010, but there’s not much visibility beyond that,” notes Lawrence. “The 2011 outlook isn’t forming itself, and there’s still some hesitancy in the market about what we’re facing in the coming year. We think our businesses are providing products that help America become more competitive every day, so we’re encouraged.

Quick mold delivery is Intertech Machinery Inc’s another core competence, too.  From approval of mold layout given by customer, we need only 35~45 days to submit our T1 sampling samples.  All trial samples will be delivered by well-known courier express companies like TNT or Fedex or DHL to customer.  So, timing is under well controlled in customer’s planning.

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