The Perc Report includes monthly highlights on the most up-to-date plastics industry economic data, along with recent activities, articles, and blogs which you may have missed.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.9% on May 23rd, down from 7.2% on May 2nd.
Housing starts rose 5.7% in April compared to March, but fell 0.6% year-over-year. In May, new single-family home sales pulled back 4.7% monthly and down 7.7% annually.
The Industrial Production Index on construction supplies decreased by 0.9% in April and was down 0.8% from a year earlier.
The U.S. economy experienced a slower pace of growth, with real GDP expanding at 1.3% in the first quarter, revised down from the initial estimate of 1.6%.
Automobile and light truck assemblies were down 4.0% in April, equivalent to 10.9 million units on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis—lower than the 11.3 million units in March.
The Producer Price Index for plastics materials and resin manufacturing exhibited a 1.4% increase in April. From a year earlier, it decreased by 6.0%.
The capacity utilization rate in plastics and rubber products manufacturing saw a marginal uptick to 76.3% in April from 76.1% in March. It has remained under 80.0% since December 2022.
U.S. imports for plastics products, based on customs value, from Asia rose to $7.3 billion in Q1 2024 – a 3.8% increase from the previous quarter and an increase of 15.1% from a year earlier.
Plastics material and resin production pulled back by 1.4% in Q1 2024 quarter-over-quarter but up 1.1% year-over-year.
The Producer Price Index for industrial mold manufacturing was unchanged in April from March but was up 6.5% compared to April last year.
