Resin, Rubber & Fiber Manufacturers NAICS 3252

Aug 21, 2025 - US Manufacturing Contracts Again in July

• US factory activity contracted in July at the fastest pace in nine months, dragged down by a faster decline in employment as orders continued to shrink, Bloomberg reports. July marked the fifth consecutive month that factory activity in the US declined. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 48 in July from 49 in June. The five-month stretch of contraction followed a two-month expansion preceded by 26 months of contraction. The production index rose to 51.4 in July from 50.3 the prior month. New orders rose to 47.1 in July from 46.4, showing slowing contraction. (Readings above 50 signal growth, while below that level signals contraction.) Manufacturers and their customers have become more cautious amid President Trump's volatile tariff policies, depressing demand for manufactured goods and, with it, demand for resin, plastic, rubber, and fiber materials.
• While many businesses are struggling to respond to President Trump’s tariff turmoil, higher trade barriers are creating opportunities for some US manufacturers, The Wall Street Journal reports. One such beneficiary, Grand River Rubber & Plastics, is seeing an increase in new orders and inquiries from customers looking to avoid import tariffs, per WSJ. The Ohio company’s President Donny Chaplin says two previous customers that had switched to Chinese suppliers a few years ago recently came back wanting to buy rubber gaskets from Grand River again. Together with three makers of oil filters, the new business will be worth about $5 million a year if completed, or roughly 10% of Grand River’s revenue, requiring the company to hire and expand production lines, Chaplin told WSJ. However, 10% baseline tariffs and higher duties on goods from China are increasing Grand River’s costs for supplies including machine tools and rubber.

• President Trump has signed an executive order banning federal use of plastic straws saying they “don’t work,” the AP reported in February. The EO reverses federal purchasing policies that encourage paper straws and restrict plastic ones and directs federal agencies to stop buying paper straws “and otherwise ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings.” Part of Trump’s executive order was aimed at reducing the price of paper straws, which can cost between five to 12 cents per unit compared to less than two cents per unit for plastic straws, according to Clean Water Action. Also, a White House Fact Sheet claims the use of paper straws carry health risks citing a study that found that while PFAS (aka forever chemicals) were found in paper straws, no measurable PFAS were found in plastic ones. Plastic straws are typically made from polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) plastics.
• Producer prices for resin, rubber and fiber manufacturers fell 1.9% in July compared to a year ago, after rising 1.9% in the previous July-versus-July annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. While industry producer prices have trended downward since mid-2022, they remain historically high. Employment by resin, rubber and fiber manufacturers grew 2.3% year over year in June, although industry job growth has been flat over the past decade. Meanwhile, average wages at plastics and rubber manufacturers rose 2% YoY in July to $25.26 per hour, BLS data shows.