Many film-extrusion equipment exhibitors at NPE2009 said that quoting activity had risen in recent weeks, and for several, purchase orders are trickling in as well, including deals announced at NPE and ones consummated just prior.

On June 25, Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. announced the sale of three polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cling-film lines to an unnamed Middle Eastern processor. The first line will be delivered near the end of the year, with the other two to be installed in mid-2010. The lines will be used to produce PVC cling film for supermarket packaging of fresh meat and other foods. Macro says each line has an output of 200 kg/hr with a film thickness of 9 µm.

On the same day, Kiefel announced the sale of 64-inch and 54-inch three-layer lines at the show. In a statement, Steve DeSpain, Kiefel Inc.’s VP of sales and marketing, said that overall show traffic was down

Following the show, Gloucester Engineering announced a series of sales it says were consummated prior to NPE2009. Malpack Ltd. (Toronto, ON) has ordered its fifth cast-film line from Gloucester, with delivery scheduled for the end of 2009. The system, which will boost Malpack’s capacity to 43.6 million lb/yr, will be the first in North America to utilize Cloeren’s NanoLayer Feedblock technology. In addition, the company announced that Sigma Plastics’ Sigma Stretch Film division has purchased its first 5-layer agricultural stretch line, with shipment planned for October 2009. Finally, the company announced Berry Plastics will take delivery of the world’s first WOW Winder. Specifically designed for stretch-film applications, Gloucester says the system is capable of running hand-wrap rolls more than 50% faster than conventional winders and features integrated core loading and roll unloading. To be delivered in the third quarter, the winder will be paired with a Gloucester 11-layer polyethylene cast-film line delivered to Berry earlier this year.

Like nearly all segments, extrusion sales have been down, with the SPI: The Society of the Plastics Industry reporting that 200 units, including pipe and profile, as well as compounding lines, were delivered in the first quarter of 2009, with a total value of $23.264 million. Excluding blowmolding, for which data was unavailable, SPI said total first-quarter 2009 primary machinery shipments were valued at $95.2 million, with 330 injection molding units shipped in addition to the 200 extrusion lines. —tony.deligio@cancom.com