SIC 5162 Plastics Materials and Basic Forms and Shapes

SIC 5162

This industry includes companies engaged in the wholesale distribution of plastics materials and basic forms and shapes. Industry products include unsupported plastic film, sheeting, rods, tubes, and synthetic resins.

NAICS CODE(S)

422610

Plastics Materials and Basic Forms and Shapes Wholesalers

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were a total of 3,908 establishments involved in the plastics and basic forms and shapes industry in 2001. There were a total of 43,116 employees, with an annual payroll of approximately $2 million. In 2003, the workforce had decreased to 30,279 employees. The annual sales for the industry totaled $10.9 billion in 2003.

The plastics materials and basic shapes sector controls more than 30 percent of the industry in terms of market share. The sector consists of 931 establishments, with total sales of $3.3 million. The plastics materials not elsewhere classified segment made up more than 24 percent of the market, with $6.7 million in sales. The plastics products not elsewhere classified segment made up more than 19 percent of the market, with $6.7 million in sales. Still others included resins with sales of $24.9 million; plastics resins with sales of $8.7 million; synthetic resins with $3.6 million; plastic basic shapes, with $2 million; plastics film, with $3.3 million; and plastics, sheets, and rods with $4 million.

A panel of 67 journalists gathered by the Newseum, a journalism museum, ranked the invention of plastic number 46 on its list of the 100 most significant news events of the 20th Century, according to a February 1999 American Plastics Council (APC) press release. Newsweek magazine seconded this opinion. As the APC reported in November 1999, the year-to-date plastic resin production by August 1999 amounted to 52.1 billion pounds, a 5.3 percent increase over production for the same eight-month period in 1998. August 1999 production reached 6.6 billion pounds, a 0.7 percent decrease from July 1999 production but a 4.1 percent increase over August 1998 production.

Both shipments and employment in plastics rose over the 1990s. Employment continued its annual growth rate of 3 percent since 1974, reaching 1,337,700 jobs by 1996, and shipment values continued their two-and-a-half decade growth rate of 4.1 percent, and between 1991 and 1996 alone shipment values rose 55 percent, reaching a value of $274.5 billion in 1996, according to APC statistics.

The...