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EXHIBIT SPACE CONTRACTED FOR NPE2009 ALREADY EQUALS 83% OF FINAL TOTAL FOR NPE 2006, AS 864 COMPANIES MAKE SELECTIONS
SABIC Innovative Plastics and Nypro, Inc. Are Among Significant 'New' Participants

CHICAGO (February 22, 2008) – Sales of exhibit space for the NPE2009 international plastics exposition got off to an auspicious beginning this week as representatives of 864 companies selected space amounting to 83% of the grand total taken by show-time at the previous edition of the triennial NPE show in 2006.

The selection took place on February 19-20 in the NPE2009 Drawing for Exhibit Space at Chicago's McCormick Place, which will be the site of NPE2009 on June 22-26, 2009. Participants contracted for 788,030 sq.ft, which is 82.9% of the at-show total of 949,500 sq.ft. taken by 1,850 companies for NPE 2006.

"The enthusiastic response of the industry at our traditional Drawing has given a big head start for NPE2009 in comparison with a 2006 show that itself was successful," said Gene Sanders, vice president of trade shows for The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI), founder and producer of NPE. "Since the number of companies selecting space at the Drawing is always much smaller than the final number of exhibitors, SPI is confident that NPE2009 will indeed surpass the 2006 show in size. This is appropriate for a show that will incorporate much new content and many innovative features." Among 'new' exhibitors taking part in the Drawing were two leaders in their fields:

● SABIC Innovative Plastics. While parent company Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC) is a longtime NPE exhibitor, this new division, formed from GE Plastics when SABIC acquired that business in May of 2007, represents a return to NPE of a leading international supplier of engineering thermoplastics. Long one of the biggest exhibitors at NPE (and one of the exhibitors at the original NPE in 1946), GE was absent from the 2006 show. SABIC Innovative Plastics has selected a 12,000 sq.ft. (1,115 sq.m) booth in the new McCormick West Building, which opened in August of 2007. "We're very excited to be part of NPE," said communications manager John Nicholas. "We feel that the new West Hall will be an excellent opportunity for us, with the technical seminars, the educational program, and the New Technology Pavilions."

At NPE2009, McCormick West will be the venue for the largest array of new-technology offerings in NPE history, including the ANTEC™ 2009 conference organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), a wide range of other conferences and seminars, pavilions focusing on emerging technologies and innovative products, other pavilions for special industry sectors such as elastomers, an international design competition, and a theater for new-product demonstrations.

● Nypro, Inc. One of the world's largest plastics processors, Nypro will exhibit at NPE for the first time, having selected a 900 sq.ft. (85 sq.m) booth for NPE2009. For a long time nearly all of Nypro's business was focused on molding, according to corporate communications director Al Cotton, but now a little over half of the company's revenue comes from non-molding activities such as design, moldmaking, and assembly. "Now the entire plastics industry is our market—including molders," Cotton said. The company operates 50 plants in 16 countries.

At the triennial NPE Drawings, SPI utilizes a system designed to ensure fairness in the allocation of space. Rather than directly determining the size and location of an exhibitor's space, SPI assigns drawing priority according to the number of previous NPEs in which a company has exhibited and whether or not it is an SPI member. Within each category, the order in which space is selected by companies is determined by a random drawing.

At this week's Drawing, the first four selections were made by companies that have exhibited at every NPE since the original one in 1946: LyondellBasell Industries (in 1946, the Hercules Powder Company), Demag Plastics Group (Van Dorn Iron Works), Canon Communications (Modern Plastics magazine), and Farrel Corp.

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The NPE 2009 international plastics exposition will take place June 22-26, 2009 at Chicago's McCormick Place. NPE 2006 attracted 1,838 exhibitors on 942,524 sq.ft. (87,600 sq. m) of net space; 33% of them came directly from outside the U.S. Of 64,438 industry professionals who registered to attend, 23% were internationals from 114 countries. For details on NPE, visit www.npe.org.

Founded in 1937, THE SOCIETY OF THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY, INC., (SPI) is the trade association representing the third-largest manufacturing industry in the United States. SPI's members represent the entire plastics industry supply chain, including processors, machinery and equipment manufacturers and raw materials suppliers. The U.S. plastics industry employs 1.1 million workers and provides $379-billion in annual shipments. Visit SPI on the Web at www.plasticsindustry.org.

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