After preparing our latest Custom Injection Molders' Hourly Rates Survey report (p. 57), with its grim picture for custom molders, I became curious about long-term trends in molding economics. So I opened up my handwritten spreadsheets of survey data going back to 1983. I'm no CSI, but what I found were unmistakable scuff marks of a competitive struggle that has been ratcheting up in intensity for a quarter century. Just for a reality check, I discussed my data with plastics economist Bill Wood, who often writes for this magazine, and with an executive of a custom molding firm that employs 2000 people in eight plants and four countries. They agreed that my data are plausible.
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