Florida-based. On site at your plant or in an R&D lab.
Florida-based. On site at your plant or in an R&D lab.
Extrusion industry data
Market size, growth, demand drivers, workforce and downtime figures for the industries that run extrusion lines. Every figure names its source and year. Last reviewed October 2026.
$230.9B
global wires and cables market, 2025
9.0%
forecast annual growth in medical tubing to 2033
1.9M
US manufacturing jobs that could go unfilled by 2033
$125K
lost per hour of unplanned downtime at a typical industrial business
Wire and cable is the giant. Medical tubing is the fastest climber. All of them are forecast to grow.
Sources: Grand View Research: wire and cable; Grand View Research: plastic pipe; Grand View Research: medical tubing; Grand View Research: plastic extrusion machines.
Sources: Grand View Research: medical tubing; MarketsandMarkets: catheters; Grand View Research: plastic pipe; MarketsandMarkets: fluoropolymer tubing; Stratview Research: automotive hoses; Grand View Research: plastic extrusion machines; Grand View Research: extruded plastics; Grand View Research: wire and cable.
Market research firms define markets differently. For 2025, Grand View Research puts wire and cable at $230.9 billion and Global Market Insights at about $245 billion. Their Asia Pacific shares are 37.8% and 46.1%.
Read every figure here as one publisher’s estimate. The direction is consistent even where the numbers are not.
Source: Global Market Insights: wire and cable. Europe and Middle East and Africa shares are calculated from the publisher’s dollar figures.
Three things are driving new extrusion capacity: electricity grids, data centres and vehicles.
Source: IDTechEx for the International Copper Association, 2017.
of electricity grid must be added or refurbished worldwide by 2040, according to the IEA. That is roughly the length of the grid that exists today.
is what grid investment needs to reach by 2030, nearly double the level of about $300 billion when the IEA made the estimate in 2023.
is the level grid investment is expected to approach in 2026, up nearly 20% on the year before.
were sold in 2025, a quarter of all new cars sold worldwide.
Sources: International Energy Agency, Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions, 2023; International Energy Agency, World Energy Investment 2026; International Energy Agency, Global EV Outlook 2026; International Energy Agency, Energy and AI, 2025; IDTechEx for the International Copper Association, 2017.
Plants are being asked to make more with crews that are older and harder to replace.
| Group | Median age, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Plastics and rubber products manufacturing | 44.8 |
| All manufacturing | 43.9 |
| All employed workers | 42.1 |
$550.7B
shipped by the US plastics industry in 2024
1,066,500
people employed in US plastics in 2024
8th
largest US manufacturing industry by shipments: plastic products, 2023
244,000
US manufacturing jobs announced through reshoring and foreign investment in 2024
These figures are for manufacturing in general. No one publishes an industry-average scrap rate for extrusion, which is a reason to measure your own.
$1.4T
a year in unplanned downtime at the world’s 500 biggest companies, about 11% of revenues
$2.3M
an hour when a large automotive plant stops
$125K
an hour at a typical industrial business
2 in 3
businesses have unplanned outages at least once a month
In extrusion, material is usually the largest cost in the product, so every pound of scrap is paid for at full price.
Figures were read from each publisher’s own page or report in October 2026. Market forecasts are estimates and differ between publishers. Where a share was calculated from dollar figures, the chart says so. If you spot a figure that has been superseded, tell us.
Tell us what the line is doing, what it should be doing, and what cannot change. You will get a plain answer on whether training, tooling, equipment or process work is the right place to start.
