Trump's tariffs and plastics; reshoring's future; Stork's new IMM: Machinery Minutes

Key points in this episode of Machinery Minutes:

• President Trump’s latest round of tariffs were condemned by industry trade groups, including PLASTICS, VDMA and the Recycled Materials Association. 
• Reshoring guru Harry Moser thinks tariffs will cause short-term pain but could lead to long-term gain for the economy. 
• Dutch machinery maker Stork launches a new line of all-electric injection molding machines. 

Transcript 

Hello, welcome to PMM Insight, a Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing podcast. I am your host, Ron Shinn, editor of PMM.  

This is an episode of Machinery Minutes, where at the beginning of each week I share with you three things you need to know in about three minutes. You can read the complete stories on plasticsmachinerymanufacturing.com.  

Let’s get started. 

Story Number 1: President Trump announced hefty tariffs on imports from nearly all of our trading partners worldwide and the Plastics Industry Association, VDMA and Recycled Materials Association warned of disruption to supply chains, higher costs and other negative consequences. 

Matt Seaholm, PLASTICS president and CEO, urged Trump to consider more targeted policies that take into account supply chains, promote investment and maintain growth in U.S. manufacturing.  

Seaholm pointed out that in 2023, the U.S. plastics industry exported $74.2 billion worth of goods — more than it imported — resulting in a trade surplus of nearly $1 billion. The industry employs more than one million, he said.  

Other trade groups also criticized the new tariffs.  

VDMA President Bertram Kawlath said “Punitive tariffs will not solve bilateral trade problems but will lead to a spiral of isolation. The EU will likely respond with counter-tariffs."  

The VDMA represents 3,600 member companies in Germany and Europe, including companies that manufacture primary plastics processing machinery and auxiliary equipment.  

He also said “Duties between the EU and the U.S. should not be increased but rather eliminated as they harm manufacturers and consumers in both regions.” 

The Recycled Materials Association, which represents more than 1,700 companies in the U.S. and 40 countries worldwide, said that the imposition of new tariffs will significantly disrupt U.S. manufacturing and recycling operations that depend on recycled material inputs.  
  
The U.S. recycled materials industry is a net exporter and supports nearly 600,000 jobs nationwide, with the exports of recyclables helping to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, the association said. 

Read the full story, headlined: Trade groups condemn latest Trump tariffs. 

Number 2: The new tariffs rattled business leaders, but Reshoring Initiative founder and President Harry Moser believes the shaky, short-term outlook will eventually lead to a long-term payoff. 

Moser told senior staff reporter Karen Hanna that “I’m medium- to long-term optimistic, but short-term concerned or pessimistic because Trump is so inconsistent and chaotic in what he does that there's a lot of business uncertainty. When you have business uncertainty, in general, companies tend to not act. They don’t buy the equipment; they don't build the factories. …They have to know what the rules are going to be.”  

Moser encouraged manufacturers to “turn uncertainty into opportunity.”  

“If you’re a job shop, if you’re an injection molder … your customers are facing uncertainty. They don't know what’s going to happen. It’s a perfect time to get them to reshore and buy components from you,” he said.   

With so much resin produced in the U.S., especially with the availability of untapped shale-gas reservoirs, Moser said injection molding is one industry that’s poised to benefit from reshoring opportunities.   

The story is headlined: Reshoring advocate discusses tariffs, turmoil and timelines. 

Number 3: Dutch machinery maker Stork has launched a line of all-electric injection molding machines with clamping forces from about 276 tons to about 772 tons and injection units with screw sizes from 45mm to 84mm. They feature a heavy-duty rack-and-pinion drive that is highly rigid and energy-efficient. A braking energy feedback system returns recovered energy to the grid.  

Stork said the new line uses 15 percent less energy compared with similar hydraulic machines. 

The story is headlined: Stork launches all-electric IMM line. 

Those are my Top 3 items for this week. We have a new list every Monday.