Receivables over 30 days were 2.20 percent, up from 2.00 percent the previous month and up from 2.00 percent the same period in 2019. Charge-offs were 0.60 percent, down from 0.82 percent the previous month and up from 0.46 percent in the year-earlier period. Credit approvals totaled 72.3 percent, down from 72.9 percent in September. Total headcount for equipment finance companies was down 4.9 percent year-over-year. Separately, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation’s Monthly Confidence Index (MCI-EFI) in November is 56.1, up from the October index of 55.0.
ELFA President and CEO Ralph Petta said, “To the extent that member companies responding to the October MLFI-25 survey are an indicator, the equipment finance industry shows resilience in the face of a worsening health pandemic and uneven economic performance in the United States. The labor market continues to strengthen, except for workers and their employers in the restaurant, travel, leisure and hospitality sectors, who continue to struggle. Corporate earnings in many sectors are strong, the equity markets continue to defy gravity and business confidence seems to be on the rise. Hopefully, this struggle to get back to a sense of normalcy will not be overtaken by a double dip recession caused by worsening COVID-19 outbreaks reported in some states around the nation. Equipment finance companies continue to do their part to help the nation get back to business by helping finance billions of dollars in equipment investment by businesses both large and small.”
Howard Shiebler, President, Crossroads Equipment Lease & Finance LLC, said, “We focus exclusively on transportation finance, and 2020 is shaping up to be an amazing year. Freight volume and trucking market spot rates are up and corresponding demand for new and used trucks is driving our new business to record levels. We expect this trend to continue into at least the first half of 2021 and for portfolio performance and used truck and trailer prices to stay strong.”
The MLFI-25 is the only index that reflects capex, or the volume of commercial equipment financed in the United States. The MLFI-25 is a financial indicator that complements the durable goods report and other economic indexes, including the Institute for Supply Management Index, which reports economic activity in the manufacturing sector. Together with the MLFI-25, these reports provide a complete view of the status of productive assets in the U.S. economy: equipment produced, acquired and financed. The MLFI-25 is a time series that reflects two years of business activity for the 25 companies currently participating in the survey. The latest MLFI-25, including methodology and participants, is available at www.elfaonline.org/data/mlfi/.
Including its upstream effects, plastics industry employment grows to an estimated 1.5 million and shipments to US$549.5 billion. PLASTICS provides these estimates based on the most recent, complete data from the previous year. At the state level, California’s plastics industry workforce is the most numerous at an estimated 79,700 workers in 2019. Ohio places second with 74,500 workers and Texas third with an estimated 71,400. Indiana and Michigan feature the highest concentration of plastics industry workers, each with an estimated 16 plastics employees for every 1,000 non-farm workers.
Plastics manufacturing employment grew 1.6 percent per year from 2012 to 2019, which outpaced manufacturing as whole. During that same time period, manufacturing employment grew only 1.1 percent. Real (inflation-adjusted) plastics manufacturing shipments grew at a 1.1 percent annual rate from 2012 to 2019, while real value added grew 2.1 percent annually.
The 2020 Size and Impact Report, from PLASTICS’ Chief Economist Perc Pineda, PhD, also offers an outlook for the plastics industry and numerical forecasts for employment and shipments. It provides an analysis of the effects of COVID-19, providing three possible scenarios for the future of plastics and shares more information critical to business planning. www.plasticsindustry.org/sizeandimpact.
Consumer awareness about health-related issues is growing due to the increasing number of cases of nosocomial infections and epidemic outbreaks of life-threatening diseases such as H5N1 Avian influenza, H1N1 Swine flu and COVID-19. This has resulted in increasing demand from various sectors such as healthcare and medical for antimicrobial plastics due to their high antimicrobial activity, hardness, durability and transparency.
The growing demand for medical devices is likely to augment the market of antimicrobial plastics in the healthcare sector. However, volatile prices of raw materials and government regulations on the usage of plastics in certain applications are hindering the growth of the market.
The high performance plastics market is growing rapidly and is expected to continue to grow in the future owing to its increasing demand from various applications such as medical, healthcare, electronics and automotive.
Medical and healthcare applications lead the antimicrobial plastics market owing to consumer awareness pertaining to the use of antimicrobial plastics and incidences life-threatening diseases. Owing to the awareness, the importance of antimicrobial plastics in medical and healthcare application is expected to increase during the forecast period. Moreover, innovation in the medical and healthcare application, for instance, the development of non-toxic plastic equipment is anticipated to fuel the growth of the antimicrobial plastics market. Other application areas of antimicrobial plastics in medical and healthcare application include surgical and medical devices such as catheters, cubicle curtains, beds and dental implants. www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5178020/antimicrobial-plastics-market-by-type-commodity.