A profile of Canadian processing.

A Profile of Canadian Processing

You may be interested to know that there are 1453 plastics processing plants in Canada, which is 6-7% of the number in the U.S., and almost 80% of those Canadian plants are concentrated in two provinces, Ontario and Quebec. How do we know this? PLASTICS TECHNOLOGY has always made a top priority of defining the plastics processing marketplace in the U.S., as a necessary prerequisite to being able to serve (and helping our advertisers to serve) our readers as well as possible. We came somewhat late to accomplishing the same task for Canada. But over the last two years, with the helpful cooperation of several equipment suppliers to that market, we have brought on board qualified readers in what we believe to be at least 95% of Canadian plastics plants.

Based on the information processors supplied to us in order to qualify for a PLASTICS TECHNOLOGY subscription, a clearer picture than ever before emerges of how much of what sorts of plastics processing activity goes on up there. Of the 1453 total plants, 1271 are primary processing locations (i.e., perform molding, extrusion or forming of plastics), and 822 are secondary processing locations (decorating, bonding, machining, film converting, and so on). There are also 521 tooling facilities, again about 5% of the U.S. total.

Canadian primary processing plants include 505 doing injection molding, 467 extrusion, 136 blow molding, 183 thermoforming, 171 reinforced plastics/composites, 144 compounding, 142 in all types of foam processing (83 of them urethanes), and 40 or fewer plants each in calendering, rotomolding, compression/transfer molding, casting/potting, RIM, and plastisols. In general, 25-30% of those plants are located in Quebec, and 50-55% in Ontario. They only major departures from that generality are a high 60-62% of injection and compression/transfer plants in Ontario, and a low 36% of RP/composites processors in that province.

The totals for each process are 5-6% of the corresponding U.S. figure, except for a disproportionately high 8.5% for extrusion and low 3-4% for RIM and compression/transfer. The proportion of custom primary processing plants in the Canadian total is 64%, slightly less than 65.5% in the U.S.

By next year, we will have filled in a lot more detail, when we bring Canada into PLASTICS TECHNOLOGY's Manufacturing Census. Then we'll have firm figures on numbers, sizes and ages of machines per plant, pounds of various resin types processed, and more. We'll let you know what we find.

Matt Naitove Editor

PHOTO : Canadian Processing Plants