plastic mold machines Hourly Rates Dipped
plastic mold machines Hourly Rates Dipped Custom injection molders’ machine-hour rates dipped 1.3% on average in the second quarter of the year, according to 122 plants responding to our latest semi-annual survey. Rates have been dropping since the end of 2000. About 12% of respondents said their rates were lower in the second quarter than in the quarter before. Only 5% raised rates, and 83% did not change them at all. However, there were some signs that business was turning the corner at midyear. Molders’ average machine capacity utilization rose about 1.5 percentage points to 53%—still very low by historical standards. Almost 40% of respondents said their capacity utilization increased in the second quarter, versus 31% whose utilization was lower and 29% whose utilization was unchanged. This was the first time since early 2000 that more shops were gaining business than were losing it. Southeastern molders again enjoyed the highest capacity utilization, while those in the West had th...
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