Thermoplastics continue long market sag: Pause in growth is in third year for high- and low-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polystyrene

Though possibly an illusion from a sour year, the whole concept of time seems to have changed for U.S. plastics. A year ago, producers knew that their recovery from the 1980 recession had run into a snag (C&EN, Aug. 31, 1981, page 13). Now, pounded by another recession, they are wondering if their old models of growth and investment will ever resume. So this is an eerie as well as painful period. Plastics never have had anything like it. After only one down year ever (1975) in their incredible history of growth, the dominant thermoplastics—low-density and high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, and polystyrene—are facing in 1983 the fourth straight year in a pause that began in 1980. Needless to say, most of the industry's timetables from the late 1970s are out the window. Production, sales, prices, profits, plant use rates, exports, and most market development are hopelessly behind. Only in technology, ...