Advanced Materials for Global Success

With 6,100  companies employing  more than 183,000 workers, Canada’s $ 72-billion chemicals and plastics industry is a sophisticated and multifaceted sector encompassing plastics products, machinery and moulds, synthetic resins, petrochemicals, adhesives and sealants, and paints and coatings.

Most of the top plastics and chemicals companies in the world have production and/or R&D facilities in Canada to take advantage of its dynamic business environment, low tax rates and business costs, skilled workforce and ready reserves of competitively-priced feedstock. Large and efficient extracting plants, modern ethylene crackers and some of the world’s largest derivative plants are further enticements for investment.

• Eight of the world’s 10 largest plastics and chemicals companies have a production or R&D facility in Canada. Industry titans in Canada include BASF AG, Dow Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil, Mitsubishi Chemical and Shell Chemicals.
• With global supply chains for plastics and chemicals becoming increasingly complex, Canada’s offering of one of the most sophisticated logistics and transportation systems in the world is a key drawing card. 
• In chemicals, Canada has ready reserves of competitively-priced feedstock, large and efficient extracting plants, modern ethylene crackers and some the world’s biggest derivative plants.
• In plastics, Canadian machinery manufacturers have gained an international reputation for high-quality injection moulding, thermoforming machinery, blown-film extrusion systems, extruders for corrugated pipe and other plastic profiles.
• Canada’s plastics industry is also closely integrated with other advanced manufacturing sectors, such as aerospace, automotive, medical devices and telecommunications.
• Canada’s chemicals industry provides critical components for advanced manufacturing in the aerospace, biopharmaceuticals and automotive sectors, and also serves such export-oriented subsectors as petrochemicals, industrial gases, pigments, organic and inorganic chemicals, resins and synthetic fibres.
• Plastics and chemicals producers in Canada benefit from sector-specific research and training infrastructure that includes the Industrial Research and Development Institute, the National Research Council, the Institute for Chemical Process and Environment Technology, and the Institute for Research in Construction.

Major Firms in Canada

• ABC Group
• Alpha/Owens Corning
  
• Agnum Inc.
  
• Arclin
  
• BASF AG
  
• Camoplast
  
• Compact Mould
  
• Decoma International
  
• Dieffenbacher (SS)
  
• Dow Chemical
  
• DuPont
  
• ERCO Worldwide
  
• ExxonMobil
  
• Hexion
  
• Husky Injection Molding Systems
  
• Imperial Oil
  
• Ineos
  
• Invista
  
• LANXESS
  
• Methanex Corporation
  
• NOVA Chemicals Corp.
  
• Nylene
  
• Oxy Vinyls
  
• Petro-Canada
  
• Raymor Industries Inc.
  
• Renewable Energy Corp
  
• Royal Dutch Shell
  
• Royal Group Technologies
  
• Shell Chemicals
  
• StackTeck Systems
  
• Sulzer Turbo Services
  
• Sud-chemie (SS)
  
• Weber Manufacturing
  
• WEICON
  
• Wentworth Mold
  
• Winpak
  
• 3M

Look Who Chooses Canada

• In 2008, Norway’s Renewable Energy Corp. announced the construction of a $1.2-billion Quebec plant to produce polysilicon.
• In 2008 and 2009, Germany’s Dieffenbacher continued to expand in Canada, investing over $12 million to boost capacity at its Windsor, Ontario automotive component manufacturing facilities. 
•  In 2008, U.S.-based DuPont announced a multi-million dollar investment in its manufacturing site at Thetford Mines, Quebec.