Jul 7, 2015 | Uncategorized
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know we’re no stranger to plastic bag bans—in particular, we’ve covered California’s ongoing push to ban plastic grocery bags in great detail.
While it would be reasonable then to expect California to be the first state to ban plastic grocery bags, it’s Hawaii that has surprised everyone and claimed that title.
According to NBC News, Hawaii’s Honolulu County has recently voted to join the state’s other counties in passing a ban on non-reusable plastic grocery bags. This has created what is effectively a statewide ban.
While only four of the five Hawaiian counties have enacted such bans, the fifth, Kalawao County, is barely populated, livescience.com wrote recently.
As we’ve noted before, measures such as these only seek to ban the use of plastic grocery bags and not the custom bags we manufacture. However, we feel it’s important to provide updates on bag-banning measures because they always seem to be highly visible news stories, and we don’t want there to be any confusion or concern among our customers.
Like always, we’ll continue to keep you updated on stories like these and other relevant news from the plastics industry.
Jun 29, 2015 | Uncategorized
It’s been a while since our last business update, so I wanted to touch base with you. It’s been a busy spring with order volumes high. At the start of summer, it looks like more of the same.
What we’ve seen over the past few months regarding resin pricing is more of the roller coaster ride. All of 2014 was up with some relief finally offered at the end of the year and into the first quarter of this year.
More recently, there was a 5-cent increase in May, and there is now an indication that there may be another 5-cent increase in July. It will probably be the end of July before we know the final outcome of that announced increase, and I will be sure to update you when we know something more definitive.
If you have any questions about this update or anything else at all, please let us know. Thank you for your continued business, and we look forward to serving you.
Mar 27, 2015 | Uncategorized
We always strive to be responsive to our customers’ due date needs. That’s part of who we are and who we will continue to be. Over the past several weeks it has seemed that production scheduling has been somewhat more of a challenge. In many cases this is due to receiving short notice on orders of custom bags. This typically isn’t an issue for us as a custom bag manufacturer—we expect and plan for such situations—but it does seem like there has been a rise in very short notice orders lately.
At latest look, we are still at over 99% on meeting due dates, but our goal is always 100%. Keeping it at a high level is important to us and our customers, but it can be extra challenging when there is less and less wiggle room in the schedules as there is right now. In order to help us serve you better, anything you can do to monitor your needs and give as much lead time as you can would be greatly appreciated.
If you have any questions about this update or anything else at all, please let us know. Thank you for your continued business, and we look forward to serving you.
Mar 12, 2015 | Uncategorized
Opponents of California’s plastic bag ban finally have some reason to celebrate. They were able to gather enough signatures by the December 29th, 2014 deadline to put the ban to a referendum in November 2016. This means that the ban is essentially on hold until then.
According to The Plastics Industry Trade Association, the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA) collected more than 800,000 signatures, and the county registrars office verified that at least 555,236 were valid (504,706 signatures were needed).
The Plastics Industry Trade Association also reported on a statement released by APBA Executive Director Lee Califf after the referendum qualified for a vote. Said Califf:
SB 270 was never a bill about the environment. It was a backroom deal between the California Grocers Association and their union friends to scam consumers out of billions of dollars in bag fees – all under the guise of environmentalism. California voters will now have the chance to vote down a terrible law that, if implemented, would kill 2,000 local manufacturing jobs and funnel obscene profits to big grocers without any money going to a public purpose or environmental initiative.
However, an article on cnn.com noted that “supporters of the ban have asked California’s attorney general to investigate how the signatures were obtained. They allege that signature gatherers misled voters by characterizing the ban as a tax or suggesting that signing the petition would advance the ban, not repeal it.”
With the referendum being over a year away, one might be tempted to think there won’t be any news to report for a while. But, as you can see by just how passionate each side is about their point of view, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing some news sooner rather than later.
Oct 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
According to reports, the North American plastics industry might be getting a much needed boost in coming years.
South African company Sasol Limited has given final approval for an ethane cracker and six petrochemical plants in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In addition to producing plastic feedstock ethylene, the project is estimated to cost nearly $9 billion and create thousands of new jobs. News of this project comes just months after Sasol announced it would be building a high-density polyethylene plant in Texas.
Further north, Badlands NGL has announced plans for a PE manufacturing plant in North Dakota. Badlands is said to be investing $4 billion in the development, which is projected to create around 500 new jobs.
Sasol’s plants are expected to begin operations by 2018, and Badlands has stated they hope to have their plant fully operational by the end of 2017.
According to Plastics News, most of the polyethylene manufactured at Badlands’ North Dakota plant will be marketed in the United States, “but the company also expects exports to Asia, South America and Europe, shipping from both Pacific Northwest and East Coast ports.” It’s not yet clear where Sasol will market, but it’s safe to assume there will be great interest in their products within the United States and abroad.
Announcements about new plastics producers seem to be more and more frequent these days, which is likely an indicator of the easier and cheaper access to natural gas and oil due to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Only time will tell what the increase in production will mean for raw polyethylene prices—because the market is truly worldwide, the answer isn’t as simple as it might seem.
