Capital Spending for Extruder Additions and Upgrades Continues to Rise in the United States and Canada

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Industrial Info is currently tracking over $3.4 billion in capital projects in the United States and Canada where the addition of a new extruder or the major upgrade and retrofit of an existing unit is planned to take place during 2007 and beyond. Spending plans for this type of capital project have increased substantially over the last twelve months from an estimated $2.5 billion at this same time last year. These projects have been identified in two of the thirteen North American industrial markets monitored by Industrial Info including the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) and Industrial Manufacturing.

Click on the image at right to view a breakdown of extruder project spending by market region.

Extruders play a key role in both industries, but generally represent two very different types of extruder applications. In the CPI, extruders are commonly used to compound plastic resins to produce custom grades of material that can in turn be used to mold, extrude or produce a wide variety of plastic or polymer products. In the industrial manufacturing industry, extruders are most commonly associated with the production of films, tubing and plastic products. Each of these industries has continued to perform well and ahead of expectations in most cases so far this year.

Much of the increase activity can be seen in three market regions including Quebec and the United States’ Southwest and Midwest regions. Project activity and overall investments in the Southwest each increased by almost a third taking total investments to an estimated $527 million. Project activity in the Midwest also increased by a third although the total investment value (TIV) almost tripled to exceed $100 million. Total spending for Quebec also exceeded $100 million in future projects requiring extruders up from an estimated $77 million at this time last year.

Two of the most significant opportunities in the short term are plans by 3M Company to complete a major expansion of its plastic film unit (D11) by the summer of next year located in the Decatur, Alabama plant. Construction for this nearly $80 million project is being managed by PCL Construction Services (Burnsville, Minnesota) and major equipment installations are planned to begin in July or August of this year. DSM Dyneema plans to begin commercial operations of a No. 4 line addition at its Greenville, North Carolina plant in June and has already begun construction for a No. 5 line addition at the site that will be online by early next year.

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