Page 27 - Plastics News Issue November - 2024

COMPANY NEWS

Trex to start processing

LDPE film despite plant delays

ginia and Nevada facili-
ties instead of buying
from external suppliers.
Those two plants are
expected to run at tar-
geted utilization rates
by the third quarter of
2025, Fairbanks said.

“We continue to adopt
a modular approach
to the development of
the Arkansas campus,
bringing on production
lines in line with de-
mand,” Fairbanks said.

In a February earnings
lthough the new Trex composite lumber call, Trex executives
plant in Arkansas will not start produc- had said production would start up in 2026.
Ation until 2027, the company’s recycling
facility will begin processing post-consumer Looking ahead, the company expects the repair
and remodel market will return to low single-dig-
plastic film in early 2025, the CEO said during a
quarterly earnings call. it growth in 2025, supported by lower interest
rates, increased home sales and homebuilding
“The substantial production efficiencies that activity, which will support overall demand.
we’ve achieved to date have yielded sufficient In the near term, despite expectations of recov-
capacity at our existing manufacturing plants for ering consumer demand, Fairbanks didn’t rule
us to accommodate the projected demand for out further variation in plant utilization rates.
Trex products in ’25 and 2026, enabling us to
commence decking production at our Arkansas “We’re definitely looking at inventories differ-
campus in the first half of 2027,” said CEO Bryan ently than we did back in 2022,” he said. Trex
Fairbanks. significantly reduced production in 2022, then
brought back “quite a bit” in mid-2023 and sub-
However, the plant will begin processing post- sequently ran at high rates, he added. “So it’s
consumer plastics in the first quarter of 2025,
and Trex will use the recycled resin at its Vir- been a bit of an up and down from a production
perspective. We want to get away from that.”

November 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 27