Reinforced plastics on road to recovery

If reinforced plastics producers are correct, 1982 will bring them back close to 1979's record production level after a disasterous 1980 and a so-so 1981. And next year's level may even exceed the record. A consensus of producers is that 1982 volume growth will fall short of last year's; thus demand for reinforced plastics will not hit 2 billion lb yet this year. They predict that shipments will grow 5.2% from last year to 1.92 billion lb in 1982. Last year, reinforced plastics shipments rose 7.5% from 1980 levels to 1.82 billion lb. These figures were revealed last week at the annual conference of the Reinforced Plastics/Composites Institute of the Society of the Plastics Industry held in Washington, D.C. The figures are part of a survey of producers and others in the industry compiled by Laura Morrison of the public relations firm Morrison-Gottlieb, New York City. According to the survey, the biggest growth category for reinforced plastics in 1981 was the aircraft industry. This market, though the small...