Industry insiders speaking at the PLASTICS News executives' forum in the US suggested that US plastics companies should look at countries such as China, India and Vietnam as fast-growing domestic markets rather than low-cost outsourcing countries for production.

But to do so requires a change of thinking. With the U.S. economy, which is struggling to recover from the Great Recession, expected to grow at only about 2 to 3 percent a year over the next few years, it makes little sense to bring more cheap goods to the United States, the speakers argued.

LarryHotaling bluntly calls the U.S. "a stagnant market." 'Terms like' outsourcing 'are history,' he says. We should keep pace with The Times.

"You can only do services that are niche to one market, and there's a limit to how much you can cut costs," said Hotaling, managing director of GlobalDiligenceLtd., a hong kong-based consulting firm.

'Fast-growing Asian countries are creating a middle class that can buy mobile phones, computers, air conditioners and cars,' says Roger Young, asia-pacific vice president for Robertellers AssociatesLLC, a consulting firm based in Akron, Ohio. He said there was a "buying boom" in urban centers in Asian countries, including China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Young said the Chinese government is trying to boost domestic consumption and boost the economy by subsidizing purchases of computers and other products.

Emerging markets dominated several panels at the forum, which was held in Tampa, Florida, from March 7 to 10.

'Many U.S. executives still see China and India as important countries to help them cut costs,' Hotaling said. "I see a significant shift in the discussion around the next year or two, from a cost-focused focus to a more strategic focus for the future," he said.

ParmeshBhaskaran agrees. "For U.S. small and midsize businesses, when we say 'outsourcing,' it basically means getting the lowest possible price from an emerging market," says Bhaskaran, director of the Chicago office of alixPartners LLC, a consulting and turnaround firm. "It seems to me that corporate America needs to think differently and ask: How do we expand into emerging markets and try to grow there?"

The Chinese government, for example, is trying to move manufacturing up the value chain, starting to shift focus from traditional toys, shoes and textiles to new areas such as composite production and biopolymers, Mr. Young said. As labor costs rise, China's molding industry will choose to buy a one-step dual-injection molding machine instead of molding a part on one machine and then processing it on two machines, and these changes will give a powerful boost to the technology's popularity.