The Perc Report includes monthly highlights on the most recent economic and plastics industry data along with recent activities, articles, and blogs which you may have missed.
The Federal Reserve held the federal funds rate steady within its 5.25% - 5.50% target during its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting. There are two more meetings in 2023, and the likelihood of one more rate hike this year remains.
New home sales dipped to 675,000 in August (SAAR), down from July’s 739,000. Housing starts plummeted by 11.3% in August to 1,283 thousand units (SAAR).
Automobiles and light trucks assemblies fell to 10.2 million units in August, maintaining a streak of over 10.0 million units (SAAR) for five months.
In August, the Industrial Production Index for nondurable consumer goods saw a slight 0.4% increase from July, while the durable goods index fell by 2.4% during the same period. Both indices also dropped 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
E-commerce retail sales, as a percentage of total sales, rose marginally from 15.1% in Q1 2023 to 15.4% in Q2 2023, totaling $277.6 billion.
The capacity utilization rate in plastics and rubber products manufacturing declined further to 76.3% in August. This marks a consistent downward trend since April 2022 when the rate stood at 84.7%.
In July, there were 459,300 production and nonsupervisory employees in plastics product manufacturing, marking a decrease of 3,700 from June and a decline of 12,400 compared to July 2022.
Year-to-date through July, U.S. plastics industry exports to Latin America increased by 7.9%, reaching $6.9 billion, compared to the same period last year.
The Producer Price Index for plastics packaging products dropped by 6.0% in August compared to the previous year. This decline follows a consistent trend since December 2021 when it saw a 27.2% year-on-year increase.
In August, manufacturers' total inventories of plastics and rubber products amounted to $33.9 billion, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline of 0.5%. Compared to the previous year, the value of inventories was down by 3.3%.
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