Synthetic resins and their raw materials / A survey of the types and uses of synthetic resins, the organization of the industry, and the trade in resins and raw materials, with particular references to factors essential to tariff consideration. Under the general provisions of section 332, title III, part II, Tariff act of 1930.

by United States Tariff Commission

Scope and purpose.

This survey deals with the synthetic resins, the nature and trade in the raw materials necessary for their production, the processes by which they are made, trade in them in the United States and between nations, and the nature of the competition which they meet. It does not go into the details of manufacture of and trade in the multitude of articles made of synthetic resins but stops at the point where these materials are turned over to the resin fabricator. The synthetic resins are but one of four broad groups of organic plastics. The others—natural resins, cellulose ethers and esters, and protein plastics—are discussed herein only as they relate to or compete with the synthetic resins.

The purpose of the survey is to bring together in one publication the available information on synthetic resins so as to provide a basis for consideration of future tariff problems. Because the industries involved are comparatively young and are expanding rapidly, their present day importance is not generally realized. The rapidity with which the synthetic resin industry is developing causes any comprehensive report on the subject to be practically out of date before it can be published. Notwithstanding the progress made each year in the quantity of production, new applications, and new commercial products, the industry may be said to be still in the industrial nursery. This circumstance necessarily limits the period during which any treatment of the subject will be representative.