CMPND

Especially with the economy in such a tenuous condition, polymer industry leaders are interested in market trends. Everyone wants a crystal ball to predict where the industry is going, so the webinar sponsored by PolymerOhio in mid-March 2009 provided some useful insight.

The event was based on a special survey that updates the 2008 study of the plastic industry by the firm of Plante & Moran, PLLC, an independent certified public accounting company and business advisory firm based in Southfield, MI.

Ohio has amazing assets for attracting companies, especially polymer companies that are ready to establish or expand their business to Ohio. "It is asset-based company attraction," says Barr Klaus, of PolymerOhio, an industry-based organization that works with the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) and local economic development to encourage and assist companies in expanding in or relocating to the state. "Polymers have a strong presence in Ohio; we have the infrastructure, and companies’ growth and profit potential are improved by locating here"

A lot of emerging technologies play leapfrog with their commercialization process. A good idea – an advanced material or process – goes to bench testing, then scale-up. Tests prove that it does what it claims. That’s a big leap forward. Then everything slows down, while the manufacturing process gathers itself and advances enough to leap forward and provide the platform for production of marketable quantities.