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PLASTICS, ACC ramp up campaign for zero plastic resin loss

PLASTICS, ACC ramp up campaign for zero plastic resin loss Operation Clean Sweep Blue Verification boosts rigor and transparency; companies must implement best practices and undergo inspections. The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) have launched Operation Clean Sweep (OCS) Blue Verification, which introduces external, facility-level inspections to bolster the rigor of its program designed to keep plastic in use and out of the environment. The new program is intended to offer transparency for the more than 500 participating facilities in the U.S. Operation Clean Sweep was founded by the Plastics Industry Association in 1991 and is managed in partnership with the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division. The industry-led program is dedicated to helping companies move toward zero plastic resin loss and is active in more than 60 countries worldwide. To become OCS Blue Verified, a facility must implement 29 management practices that include risk assessments, employee training and data reporting, and undergo inspections conducted by trained and approved OCS Blue Verifiers. The first verification cycle extends through the end of 2025 and continues every three years moving forward. “Preventing pre-production plastic from entering the environment is a top priority for PLASTICS’ members and the entire industry,” said PLASTICS President and CEO Matt Seaholm. “OCS Blue Verification underscores this commitment and ensures all OCS Blue members are held to rigorous management practices while working towards a future where all plastic remains in the circular economy.” * Source : https://www.plasticsmachinerymanufacturing.com/manufacturing/article/53074077/plastics-acc-ramp-up-campaign-for-zero-plastic-resin-loss

이명규 기자 2024-08-25

Prices of PE, PP, PVC Up; PS, PET Flat

Prices of PE, PP, PVC Up; PS, PET FlatWhile prices moved up for three of the five commodity resins, there was potential for a flat trajectory for the rest of the third quarter. Prices of PE, PP and PVC moved up in July, while those of PS and PET rolled over, but there was potential for flat pricing for all through August and September. Driving factors include reduced domestic demand. The slackened demand can be partially attributed to prebuying in anticipation of a very active 2024 hurricane season; a drop in exports due to higher domestic prices combined with global competitive pricing and slowed demand; and overall lower raw material costs, except for propylene monomer, though a change in that market was underway. All this holds, barring major production disruptions, of course. These are the views of purchasing consultants from Resin Technology Inc. (RTi); senior analysts from Houston-based PetroChemWire (PCW); CEO Michael Greenberg of The Plastics Exchange (TPE); Scott Newell, executive vice president polyolefins at distributor/compounder Spartan Polymers; and Mike Burns of Plastic Resin Market Advisors. These sources all noted that despite Hurricane Beryl in July, which had a negligible impact on resin production, partially due to a large Saharan dust plume which prevented the development of new storms. That said, most meteorologists continued to predict a heating up of the summer storm season that could prove severe. As TPE’s Greenberg reported, “A series of storms, or even just a major one, could disrupt petrochemical and plastics production to create supply challenges, so we advise to err to the side of caution and keep an extra inventory buffer on hand, just in case.” PE Prices Up Polyethylene prices, after rolling over for both May and June, appeared to be moving up 3¢/lb in July, this out of the 5¢/lb July-issued hike, with one industry index showing as much and another indicating ‘unsettled.’ Meanwhile, PE suppliers were out with another 5¢/lb increase for August. By most accounts, while it seems PE resin prices won’t drop within the July-August time frame, it appears that PE suppliers won’t garner much more than the 3¢/lb increase out of the 10¢/lb sought. This according to PCW’s associate director for PE, PP and PS David Barry; TPE’s Greenberg; Burns of Plastic Resin Market Advisors; and Kevin Mekaru, RTi’s senior business leader commodity plastics. These sources generally were in agreement that any PE price reduction would not be forthcoming for August and September, and that a flat pricing scenario had potential. Some, like Barry and Burns, ventured that the partial 3¢/lb increase could be implemented in August vs. July. All noted that the impact of hurricane Beryl was not an issue and that the market was generally balanced. In fact, Barry noted that some PE resin sectors — primarily LLDPE film and HDPE injection — appeared to be “long.” Moreover, nearly everyone commented that the overall market was not as robust as PE suppliers have been indicating, citing a slowdown in Asian exports in particular. “The long-term outlook does not foresee the sustainability of any of the new increases without an unexpected event,” Burns says. “Feedstocks will not drive prices as natural gas and ethane inventories remain ample and low cost.” Both Barry and Mekaru noted that new capacity from Shell, NOVA and Baystar was also making an impact. They also added that Shell had initiated production and marketing of HDPE blow molding grades at attractive prices, in addition to its LLDPE film and HDPE injection grade resins. At July’s end, Greenberg reported that TPE’s prime spot PE pricing was a mixed bag, with most grades down a half cent, though lower volume LLDPE injection and granular grades held firm, and scarce LDPE injection garnered a penny increase. “Export business was softer due to competitive offers out of China,” Greenberg says. “North American producers might need to be agile with export pricing to remain competitive on incremental sales and maintain market share and/or reduce reactor rates to keep burdensome inventories from developing.” PP Prices Up Polypropylene prices in July moved up 5¢/lb in step with propylene monomer, and while suppliers were out with a 3¢/lb price increase in addition to any change in the monomer, this initiative fell by the wayside, according to PCW’s Barry; Spartan Polymers’ Newell; TPE’s Greenberg; and Paul Pavlov, vice president of PP and PVC for RTi. The continuation of a tight monomer supply due to planned and unplanned shutdowns of on-purpose PDH (propane dehydrogenation) propylene plants, made the outlook for pricing in August uncertain, though nearly all sources saw potential for flat pricing in September. Barry noted that spot propylene prices going into August were trending down. He also reported on a slowdown in exports demand due to higher U.S. prices. Still Mekaru ventured an increase of another 3¢/lb was possible for propylene and PP in August. “We’re still vulnerable,” Newell says. “There’s not a lot of cushion in terms of propylene supply, but PDH plants are coming back online, so it’s a tough call.” Citing American Chemistry Council data, these sources all note that domestic PP demand through the second quarter was up by 5% year-to-date, but all also note that it’s difficult to determine how much of that was due to prebuying. Newell notes that some processors had bought material to last through September. By July’s end, some resin distributors reported a slowdown, attributing it to higher prices, according to Barry. Reporting on spot PP market sales, Greenberg reports that TPE saw the market as “a tale of two grades” in the last week of July. He notes that homopolymer PP sales slumped due to prebuying during May and June, while PP copolymer sales moved up as supply had been tight for several months and was further exacerbated by an INEOS Polyolefins force majeure for its PP copolymer resins. “Invista is not expected to bring its CoPP line back up until at least mid-August, and Heartland Polymers is not expected to produce CoPP until late fourth quarter,” Greenberg says. PS Prices Flat Polystyrene prices in July appeared to have rolled over for the fourth consecutive month, and there was some potential for this trend to continue into August and September, according to PCW’s Barry and RTi’s Mekaru. This despite unplanned shutdowns in July due to tornado turbulence in Illinois at two plants — one by INEOS Styrolution and the other by American Styrenics. Barry, for one, notes that these two plants represented only a fraction of overall domestic PS production, but Pavlov says it was a bit premature to determine that degree of impact, also noting that the shutdowns affected primarily HIPS production. As such, he ventures prices in August could move up with September likely to be flat. Somewhat in contrast, Barry reports that spot feedstock prices — primarily benzene — were dropping, noting that July benzene prices fell 13-14¢/gal to $3.85. He ventures that another similar drop was likely for August, so that a corresponding drop in PS prices was likely, at least, for August. While PS demand is characterized as a bit better in second quarter year to date, it was still lackluster, with plant’s operating at 60% utilization. PVC Prices Up PVC prices in July moved up 1¢/lb following the unusual back-to-back increases through April, which now total 7¢/lb. While some suppliers had issued a total of 4¢/lb for the July-August time frame, the trajectory was changing, according to RTi’s Pavlov and as indicated by Donna Todd, PCW’s associate director PVC and pipe. Pavlov ventures that August prices would roll over and September prices had the potential for a 1¢/lb decrease. Todd reports that while OxyVinyls had joined Westlake to issue increases of 2¢/lb each for July and August, there had been no announcements from either Formosa or Shintech. That’s despite some unplanned shutdowns of PVC and VCM lines. Pavlov notes that PVC demand for the first half of 2024 was up by nearly 11%, adding that domestic suppliers continued to have an advantage in exports due to global PVC prices rising. PET Prices Flat PET prices were flat again in July, following the 1¢/lb-to-1.5¢/lb drop in May. They had the potential to stay relatively flat in August and September, according to RTi’s Mekaru. This is in concert with raw material formulation costs and general economic indications. Mekaru continues to characterize PET supply as ample, with competitively priced imports continuing to be a factor and year-over-year demand showing a bit of an uptick, which has included prebuying activity in anticipation of the hurricane season. * Source : https://www.ptonline.com/articles/prices-of-pe-pp-pvc-up-ps-pet-flat-

이명규 기자 2024-08-25

SKC to build world's top biodegradable plastic plant in Vietnam

SKC to build world's top biodegradable plastic plant in Vietnam The plant, aimed to launch operations in Q3 2025, will produce 70,000 tons of polybutylene adipate terephthalate a year SKC Chief Executive Park Woncheol speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for a biodegradable plastic plant in Hai Phong, Vietnam on May 11 (Courtesy of SKC) SKC Ltd., a chemicals arm of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate SK Group, said on Sunday its biodegradable material unit has broken ground on a plant in Vietnam, which is expected to be the largest single factory for polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) in the world. SK Leaveo, the biodegradable material unit, will inject $100 million into the new plant and aims to start production of 70,000 tons of PBAT in the third quarter of 2025. This will be the biggest annual production capacity of the eco-friendly plastic for a single plant in the world, SKC said. The plant will have 22,389 square meters of floor area in the economic zone of Hai Phong, an industrial gateway and key port city in Northern Vietnam. SKC said it has secured another site to expand the production in the future. PBAT is widely used for flexible and resilient bioplastic, a key material for food packaging films and shopping bags. SK Leaveo plans to develop high-strength PBAT by using reinforcement material nanocellulose to expand the bioplastic’s applications to textiles and nonwovens, SKC said. The new plant will use only renewable energy for the electricity it needs under the Vietnamese government’s clean energy initiative RE 100. SK Leaveo will also partner with Vietnam’s leading plastic maker An Phat Holdings, which plans to buy a stake in the Korean firm’s Vietnamese affiliate, sign a long-term contract to purchase the new plant’s PBAT and export the material. Formerly named Ecovance, SK Leaveo was established in November 2021 by SKC, Korea’s leading food maker Daesang Corp. and trading company LX International Corp. The three shareholders. The three stakeholders initially owned 57.8%, 22.2% and 20% of the biodegradable material maker, respectively. LX International expressed its intention to divest its holding late last year as the PBAT producer decided to build the plant in Vietnam, shifting its plan to construct the facilities in Korea, according to market insiders. * Source : https://www.kedglobal.com/chemical-industry/newsView/ked202405120002

이명규 기자 2024-08-21

Plastics machinery shipments decline again in Q2

Plastics machinery shipments decline again in Q2The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) reports demand fell 15.4 percent from the first quarter According to shipment data from the Committee on Equipment Statistics of the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS), the second-quarter 2024 shipment value of primary plastics machinery in North America, covering injection molding and extrusion, is estimated at $224.8 million, which marks a 15.4 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a 36.2 percent year-over-year decline. Single-screw extrusion saw a 3.4 percent quarter-over-quarter (Q/Q) increase, but a 28.6 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) decrease. Twin-screw extrusion experienced a 23.5 percent decrease Q/Q and a 25.3 decline Y/Y. Injection molding shipments fell by 16.3 percent Q/Q, and a Y/Y decline of 37.7 percent. “The second consecutive quarter of decline in shipments is not due to a pullback in plastics demand,” said PLASTICS Chief Economist Perc Pineda. “In fact, based on monthly Plastics Demand Estimate, there has been growth in demand recently. There is no indication that the baseline demand for plastic products has deteriorated.” Manufacturers’ finished goods inventories of plastics and rubber products were estimated at $15.0 billion in June this year, compared to $15.2 billion in June last year, indicating slow inventory adjustments. Results from the latest CES quarterly survey showed that a high percentage (79.9 percent) of respondents anticipate steady or improved market conditions over the next 12 months. However, 40.0 percent reported an increase in quoting activity, which was lower than the 48.9 percent in the previous quarter’s survey. In Q2 2024, U.S. total exports of plastics equipment declined by 14.7 percent to $341.0 million compared to the previous quarter, while imports decreased by 3.8 percent to $856.8 million during the same period. Slightly more than half (53.4 percent) of exports went to Mexico and Canada, jointly accounting for $182.3 million of U.S. plastics machinery exports globally. “While the rate of decline in the second quarter was significantly less than in the first quarter, the industry continues to deal with higher interest rates, and that’s weighing on capital expenditure plans,” Pineda said. “The economy is currently not operating at maximum capacity in plastics processing; capacity utilization is below potential, leaving room for growth.” * Source : https://www.plasticsmachinerymanufacturing.com/manufacturing/article/55132666/plastics-machinery-shipments-decline-again-in-q2

이명규 기자 2024-08-21

Shrink Films Made from Household Waste

Shrink Films Made from Household Waste The chemical company Dow and the RKW Group have jointly developed two new plastics formulated with PCR. One of the two plastic resins consists of 100 % post consumer waste, while the second contains up to 85 %. The new shrink films are approved for non-food packaging. The new developments expand the company‘s sustainability portfolio and are approved for non-food packaging. By combining Dow‘s materials science know-how with the extrusion and printing expertise of the RKW Group, plastic resins from household waste for shrink films have been created under the name Revoloop. In collaboration, a new collectible shrink film has been developed that combines recycled household plastic waste with virgin materCo Compatible with Existing Recycling Processes “The flexible packaging solution meets the high requirements for mechanical recycling and is compatible with existing recycling processes,” says Konrad Noniewicz, Director R&D & Application Engineering at the RKW Group. According to the company, the end product meets the high requirements of well-known brand owners around the world. Until now, the plastics industry has struggled to maximize recycled plastics household waste to reach demanding applications such as collation shrink films, as it is more prone to contamination than waste from commercial or industrial sources. With the launch of Revoloop, the partners are tackling this challenge and achieving new goals in the circular economy and in reducing CO2 emissions. By 2030, Dow aims to transform the waste and commercialize three million metric tons of circular and renewable solutions annually. To achieve this, Dow is expanding its efforts to advance circular and sustainable packaging. Aligned with these sustainability goals, the launch of Revoloop comes with a new promise to unlock even more value in plastic waste for customers and partners. * Source : https://en.kunststoffe.de/a/product/shrink-films-made-from-household-waste-6000214?etcc_cmp=Newsletter+KUint-News&etcc_med=Newsletter&sc_src=email_4409261&sc_lid=279694604&sc_uid=YiVCmAEdX1&sc_llid=330&sc_eh=3b64de058e174c0d1

이명규 기자 2024-08-21

More cargo shipping complications on the horizon

More cargo shipping complications on the horizon Port Houston More cargo shipping complications on the horizon Global shipping may be facing more turmoil with costs per container headed to the U.S. West Coast from Asia up more than 200 percent, continued disruptions from attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea near the Suez Canal and a potential strike at ports on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast. "At the moment it is unlikely — but not impossible — that [container shipping costs] will reach the levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are so many factors in play it is not possible to predict the market with any degree of certainty," Peter Sand, chief analyst for Xeneta, a global air and ocean freight market analytics company, said in a June 14 blog post. Supply chain snags in the aftermath of shutdowns related to the pandemic in 2020 led to delivery delays and higher costs. While conditions have calmed down since then, the cargo industry has little room to adjust for the unexpected. So when Houthi rebels in Yemen began attacking cargo ships entering the Suez Canal late last year — in support of Hamas in its attack on Israel — cargo ships began rerouting to take a longer passage around Africa, leading to slower delivery times and higher pricing. In the U.S., talks have broken down between the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance — representing owners of East Coast and Gulf Coast ports — over a contract set to expire in September. The union and port operators had been scheduled to complete a master contract by mid-May, CNBC reported. "The obvious response for U.S. importers would be to rush as many shipments as possible and build up inventories ahead of any potential port disruption," Sand wrote. "We have already seen shippers adopting this tactic in 2024, with some importing Christmas goods now ahead of the peak season." Andrew Schunk Preparing for a hydrogen future If hydrogen fuel cells become the next big thing in the auto industry, then Trelleborg AB wants to be the leading expert in seals, connections and tanks for those systems. The Swedish engineering group's Trelleborg Sealing Solutions just opened a 1,000-square-foot hydrogen testing center in Indiana to provide testing capabilities for every aspect of a hydrogen fuel system. There are few polymers able to stand up to demands of hydrogen storage, so expertise is needed now on reliable materials. "There is also a lack of defined industry standards specifying how materials should be properly tested and verified to work effectively with hydrogen," James Simpson, Trelleborg Sealing global director of energy, told our sister paper Rubber News at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Robert Bosch A good year for big auto suppliers The world's largest auto suppliers, as a group, had a pretty good year in 2023, according to our sister paper Automotive News and its annual ranking of auto suppliers. "The average global sales of suppliers in this year's ranking rose about 9 percent from a year earlier," AN's John Irwin writes. "Thirty companies sold at least $10 billion of products to automakers in 2023, compared with 27 in 2022." Robert Bosch Group topped this year's list with more than $55 billion in sales, followed by ZF Friedrichshafen at $49.7 billion and Magna International Inc. at $42.8 billion. * source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/kickstart/cargo-shipping-complications-preparing-hydrogen-future-good-year-big-auto-suppliers

이명규 기자 2024-07-26

Putting the intelligence in AI for the plastics industry

Putting the intelligence in AI for the plastics industry Artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance precision and productivity, increase uptime and bridge the skills gap. The transition to AI will benefit plastics processors by enabling predictive maintenance, reducing scrap and energy usage, and shortening time to market, according to Samantha Peterson in her e-book, The Benefits of AI in Injection Molding. From monitoring the behavior of raw materials to detecting process variations to real-time assistance for problems, AI offers manufacturers tight control over the entire production process, said Peterson, content marketing and events manager at Traverse City, Mich.-based RJG Inc. Although she focused on injection molding, AI is playing a bigger role in extrusion, blow molding, thermoforming, tool design, part design and more. "AI's capacity to analyze datasets and derive actionable insights enables you to optimize production processes and maximize output. By leveraging AI, you can fine-tune production parameters in real time, optimizing resource allocation and enhancing overall productivity," Peterson writes. AI gives employees tools to fix a process no matter their skill level, which helps build morale and pride, Peterson says. "And it does this all while freeing up engineering time so they can focus their time and energy on larger, more impactful projects," she says. But first that artificial intelligence has to be gleaned from a variety of sources. Think training data, work orders, PowerPoint presentations, tool setup sheets and other related information such as text, images, videos, audio recordings or even scribbled notes on stained paper. So far, most AI in the plastics industry has been limited to machine learning, which uses data to make predictions, like a vibration sensor detecting a motor failure. However, another subset of AI technology called generative AI is creating new content based on information that's analyzed. Generative AI can use the patterns and structures of all the inputs to generate new data with similar characteristics when asked about measurements, methods, malfunctions and more. With this capability, plastics processors will be able to store the knowledge of retiring or relocating senior engineers and technicians, bring new hires up to speed more quickly, and access a secure global database related to machine operations, according to Derek Moeller, founder and CEO of CognitionWorks. Moeller also is the president of Surain Industries, a family operation founded in 1964 that does business as McConkey Co. and manufactures horticultural goods in Sumner, Wash. Founded in March 2023, Seattle-based CognitionWorks specializes in generative intelligence for the plastics industry. The firm trains a processor's AI with manufacturing documents the client already has. At McConkey, AI is used to interact with everything from work orders to manuals, procedure books and other documentation. The goal is to replace institutional knowledge at risk of going into retirements. A lot of the early interest in generative AI is related to the shortage of skilled workers, Moeller said. And while AI may help fill the gap in workplace shortages, Michael Cicco, CEO of robotics supplier Fanuc America Corp., said during a keynote presentation at NPE2024 that it can also help recruit young workers by presenting them with a new idea of what manufacturing can be. The placement of automation equipment such as robots in educational settings is helping spur more interest among students in the manufacturing sector, Cicco said. "We spend a lot of time sitting here talking about 'WTF?'" Cicco said. "And this re- ally means, 'What's the future?' We think about that quite a bit. ...We, as manufacturers, need to keep hiring people, and we can't because of the fact that there's not enough people out there. "So jobs keep opening up, there's not enough people to fill them." Tightening labor market "In the United States, for the overall economy, unemployment is 3.8 percent, but in the plastics industry specifically, it's only 2.6 percent," Moeller said in an email. "That's like a third lower than the broader economy, and that introduces a lot of challenges. One is that pay is going up." In response to the tighter labor market, plastics processors have been raising hourly rates and salaries to retain talent. However, even that's becoming a shorter-term solution. In 2012, plastics industry tenure averaged 6.1 years. In 2022, it was 4.7 years, a 23 percent decline. The outlook continues to be grim. "Over the next 10 years, 3.8 million jobs are going to need to be filled specifically in manufacturing, and a good portion of those in the plastics industry," Moeller said. About 2.8 million of those openings will be the result of retirements, he added. "The people who have been at your company the longest and have the most industry knowledge are leaving. There's going to be a mass exodus of this skilled technical knowledge from manufacturing broadly and plastics processing in particular," Moeller said. Retaining knowledge Most companies have easy access to their explicit information, like manuals, schematics and documents. These materials usually can be easily duplicated for generative AI in a week or two. Even an engineer's note scrawled on a piece of paper can be processed. "AI has an ability to take very messy information — like handwriting on paper stained with hydraulic oil — and extract the information to give us perfect answers to questions and show us the actual citation," Moeller said. He described explicit knowledge as durable. "Explicit knowledge does not walk out the door every day. It is part of your company, and it stays there permanently. The disadvantage is that it's kind of hard to find. It might be in a processing guide that came from a conference or an engineer's note on page 75 in the fifth binder from the left. What's the chance it will be found when it's needed?" The chances are very good with AI, he added. However, tacit information, which is out on production floor in the form of expertise and experience of the mold setters and technicians, is harder to obtain. "This informal knowledge about how to do things is just stored in their heads. It's incredibly valuable, and we cannot discount what they can contribute," Moeller said. Tacit knowledge needs to be converted to explicit knowledge by writings and recordings. Something as informal as a cell phone recording of a company expert's rambling, stream of conscious can be processed. "AI is really good at taking this kind of informal knowledge and making it structured," he said. He points to studies that indicate about 80 percent of a company's knowledge walks in and out the door every day as employees come and go. "We're going to lose a lot of that knowledge over the next 10 years unless we do something about it," Moeller warned. Sharing knowledge AI has the possibility to let plastics processors tap into the knowledge of everyone across the world who has used a particular machine. "There is no reason that the knowledge that you have within your plant about a particular piece of equipment should be the only knowledge that you get access to," Moeller said. "Dozens and dozens of other plants have the same equipment, and maybe hundreds of technicians have used it. Why not be able to tap into that knowledge so you know every single problem that could happen with that machine? Probably somebody has come across it before." It's time for the plastics processors to use AI to share their machine knowledge, Moeller said. "We believe that our industry is at a disservice by not having access to that community common knowledge," he said. "That's something we would like to build for tomorrow and would love to have conversations with people about how to do it." Security is paramount, Moeller added, because AI will have access to company knowledge and proprietary processes. That's why the information is encrypted and compartmentalized. "The cognition engine doesn't actually know your knowledge. That's in a knowledge vault," Moeller said. "You never have to worry about the AI remembering anything that you don't want to remember because it's stored separately." Putting AI to work In the plastics industry, generative text and voice are helping processors the most. For example, suppliers to the automotive market can use generative AI for failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) reports, which can take a long time to write. "With examples, AI can write 70-80 percent of an FMEA with a human doing the final review and polish," Moeller said. The technology also can write summaries from bodies of knowledge, in one case condensing 30,000 pages of information into two paragraphs and summarizing the information needed. Generative AI also is good at taking informal discussion and rewriting it to be formal documents. With speech synthesis, Moeller said, "In the fast-arriving future, we will have AI colleagues." Both machine learning and generative AI are useful to the plastics industry, but Moeller expects to see mostly machine learning AI applications at NPE simply because it has been in the market longer. "Generative AI is so new and changing so fast that we are very early in the cycle. The first high-cognition model was only released 13 months ago," Moeller said. * source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/putting-intelligence-ai

이명규 기자 2024-07-26

Detroit 3 fall behind international automakers in US vehicle production

Detroit 3 fall behind international automakers in US vehicle production International automakers produced 4.9 million light vehicles in 2023 compared with 4.6 million from the Detroit 3. Toyota Motor Corp. photoToyota is among the manufacturers contributing to international auto makers' producing more light vehicles in the U.S. than the Detroit 3 in 2023. International automakers produced more light vehicles in the U.S. than the Detroit 3 for the first time in 2023, according to a report from Autos Drive America and the American International Automobile Dealers Association released July 9. International automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp., Hyundai Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG, produced 4.9 million light vehicles in 2023. The Detroit 3, in contrast, produced 4.6 million light vehicles during the same period, the groups said. The groups represent international automakers and dealers doing business in the U.S. The change underscores major transformations in automotive production as international automakers gain more prominence in the U.S. market. International automakers have increased U.S. production by 85 percent since 1998, while Detroit 3 production fell around 50 percent during the same period. "I think what the report shows is that (international auto makers) are invested, and they're going to continue to invest here in the U.S.," Jennifer Safavian, CEO of Autos Drive America, told Automotive News. "They are not going anywhere." U.S. electric vehicle manufacturers Tesla Inc., Rivian Automotive L.L.C. and Lucid Group Inc. produced 754,342 light vehicles in the U.S. in 2023, according to the report. * source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/global-auto-makers-produce-more-vehicles-us-detroit-3

이명규 기자 2024-07-26