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With a reading of 51 in October, Gardner Business Media's Plastics Processors' Business Index showed growth for the 11 th time in 12 months. Yet the index was at its lowest level since December 2013, the last time it contracted. The processing market has seen slower growth since its peak in March. But compared with October '13, the index was up 4.5%. The annual rate of change has accelerated every month in 2014, reaching 8% in October. New orders have grown for 12 straight months, though the rate of growth decelerated to its slowest pace since February. Production expanded at a similar rate, but was at its lowest level of the year in October. Backlogs have contracted for six months in a row, but the index was at its highest level since July. Compared with a year ago, the backlog index increased 12.8% in October. This was the second time in three months that the month-over-month rate of growth was above 10%. The annual rate of change in backlogs continued to grow at an accelerating rate, which indicates that capacity utilization among processors should increase in 2015. After increasing last month, exports contracted at their fastest rate since December 2013. Supplier deliveries have lengthened at a consistent rate in 2014. Material prices have increased at an accelerating rate since August. Fortunately for processors, the prices they received for their products continued to increase at a signifcant rate. Future business expectations had their largest drop in the history of the index in October. Facilities with more than 250 employees failed to grow for the frst time in 2014. Processors with 100-249 employees continued to grow at a strong rate. Plants with 50-99 employees contracted for the second time in the last three months. After contracting last month, business for processors with 20-49 employees expanded. Processors with 1-19 employees contracted for the ffth month in a row. The North Central–East region expanded at its fastest rate since July. The Southeast region has expanded since July 2013. Capital-spending plans were at their lowest level since October 2012. They fell 30.2% compared with last October. This was the second month in a row that spending plans contracted by more than 30% month over month. The annual rate of change contracted for the frst time since the index began in December 2011. Growth Continues, Slowly Processing market grows for the 11 th month out of 12. Steve Kline Jr. Dir. Market Intelligence ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Steven Kline Jr. is part of the fourth-generation ownership team of Cincinnati-based Gardner Business Media, which is the publisher of Plastics Technology. He is currently the company's director of market intelligence. Contact: (513) 527-8800; email: skline2@gardnerweb.com blog: gardnerweb.com/economics/blog Plastics Processors' Business Index INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS SUB- INDICES OCT. SEPT. CHANGE DIRECTION RATE TREND b New Orders 53.4 54.3 -0.9 Growing Slower 12 Production 54.6 55.0 -0.4 Growing Slower 22 Backlog 47.5 44.9 2.6 Contracting Slower 6 Employment 51.3 52.7 -1.4 Growing Slower 14 Exports 45.1 50.9 -5.8 Contracting From Growing 1 Supplier Deliveries a 54.3 54.0 0.3 Lengthening More 35 Material Prices 68.8 65.7 3.1 Increasing More 35 Prices Received 54.3 54.8 -0.5 Increasing Less 8 Future Business Expectations 65.1 75.6 -10.5 Improving Less 35` Plastics Processors' Business Index 51.0 52.0 -1.0 Growing Slower 10 60 55 50 45 40 JUNE 13 JULY 13 AUG 13 SEPT 13 OCT 13 NOV 13 DEC 13 JAN 14 FEB 14 MAR 14 APRIL 14 MAY 14 JUNE 14 JULY 14 AUG 14 SEPT 14 OCT 14 Plastics Processors' Business Index Values below 50 indicate retraction Values above 50 indicate growth 51.0 a Refers to leng th of deliver y times. b How many months each component has been running in the same direction. 80 DECEMBER 2014 Plastics Technology PTonline.com YO U R B U S I N E S S PL A S T IC S PRO CE S S OR S' BUSINE S S INDE X