Plastics people welcome study

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 14

Plastics people welcome study

The New Zealand plastics industry welcomed the detailed study to be made of it by the Industries Development Commission, the president of the Plastics Institute (Mr M. Calvert) has told the Hornby Rotary Club. The industry was one of three (the others were' the packaging and wine Indus-1 tries) named in last month’s! Budget for examination. The aim of the study is to determine the future of the industry, its efficiency, its use of resources, its contribution to the economy, and its potential for growth. Mr Calvert said the “incredible" growth of the industry in the last 10 years would almost certainly be maintained.

si “In a very short time, plas- • I tics in this country has 11 grown from a virtual back- • yard industry to One which ■lturns over more than S3OOM r annually,’’ he said. si The industry was now the • seventh largest employer in fl New Zealand. : “However, our economic •i contribution does not stop ; I there,” he said. “Research ■ shows that more than 10 per -cent of our production is ex•l ported. We know, too, that fl we offer huge savings by way 11 of import substitution. This • study will undoubtedly come up with a firm statistical con- ’ firmation of this saving — a ’ saving which we in the Plas- > tics Institute calculate to be some S7OM.”