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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STUDY SHOWS PLASTICS INDUSTRY HAS SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON U.S. EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMY

WASHINGTON (February 14, 2002) – The U.S. plastics industry employed more than 1.5 million workers nationwide in 2000, according a report released by The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI). Another 843,300 persons were employed by upstream suppliers of the plastics industry, bringing the employment impact to nearly 2.4 million – about 2 percent of the U.S. workforce.

The nearly 21,000 plastics industry establishments operating in 2000 generated more than $330 billion in shipments, according to the SPI report. Another $89.5 billion was generated by upstream, supplying industries, bringing the total annual shipments to nearly $421 billion.

Based on these statistics, plastics processing remains the nation's fourth largest manufacturing industry, after Motor Vehicles and Equipment, Electronic Components and Accessories and Petroleum Refining.

The information was released in the “Size and Impact of the U.S. Plastics Industry,” a report prepared for SPI by Probe Economics, Inc. of Millwood, NY. The report is part of the trade association's Plastics Data Source, which provides in-depth statistics on all facets of the plastics industry.

Among other data in the report:

• Employment in the plastics manufacturing industry grew 3.0 percent per year between 1975 and 2000, compared to 0.0 percent for all manufacturing.
• Real shipments for plastics manufacturing grew 4.5 percent over that same period, compared to 1.8 percent for all manufacturing.
• California, Ohio and Michigan led the states in plastics employment, respectively, while Indiana, Michigan and Ohio had the highest concentrations of plastics industry employees.

In addition to analysis of the size and scope of the U.S. plastics industry, the report includes both state and county data on the number of companies, shipment volume, number of employees, payroll, value added and new capital expenditures for each plastics sector (by Standard Industrial Classification code).

This year's edition of the annual study also includes a section on “Key Sectors of the Plastics Industry,” which provides data on a 12-year study of growth in the resin, processing, equipment and mold industries, covering size of each sector, growth, location and outlook.

For more information on this data and other statistical studies available through SPI, visit www.plasticsdatasource.org.

Founded in 1937, The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc., is the trade association representing one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States. SPI's 1,500 members represent the entire plastics industry supply chain, including processors, machinery and equipment manufacturers and raw material suppliers.

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