Mould manufacturing in the US is “holding steady” according to the summer 2011 business forecast survey by the American Mold Builders Association (AMBA, Rolling Meadows, Illinois / USA; www.amba.org). Business conditions are classed as excellent by 78% of the association’s member companies, up slightly from the spring survey. Projections for the next three months indicate that work will either “increase moderately” (38%) or “remain the same” (47%).

Requests for quotes were up according to 31% of respondents or remained the same for 49%, while shipments were up considerably for 48%, compared to 37% in the spring survey. Profits were up or the same for 85% of the respondents, although employment was down for 28% of those polled, but remained the same for 64%, indicating that hiring employees had slowed.

This positive development goes hand in hand with the general recovery evident in the US plastics sector over the past few months. According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC, Washington, DC / USA; www.americanchemistry.com), standard thermoplastics sales over the past 5 months were up 2.8% year-on-year, reaching 14m t.