Machinery News

European machinery associations heave a sigh of relief

Assocomaplast says exports topped EUR500 million from January-March, a 24% increase over the same period in 2010. China, with almost EUR42 million (less than EUR27 million one year earlier), outstripped France (EUR32 million). The US jumped fourth from seventh with EUR25 million (EUR19 million in the first quarter of 2010), followed by Poland (60%), India (133%, up to more than EUR20 million) and Brazil (103%, again exceeding EUR20 million). Accounting for 27% of the sales, extruders outstripped injection moulding machinery, which deteriorated during the crisis, but has experienced a noticeable improvement. Sales of thermoforming machines abroad more than tripled.

Meanwhile, Ulrich Reifenhäuser, Chairman of the VDMA Association, said that the industry has returned to the high pre-crisis levels more quickly than expected and will top the previous record set in 2008.

BC says its compact processing machine comes with an anti-wear coated barrel/screw combination, is equipped with a maintenance-free AC drive and is easily set and monitored via an integrated control system in the extruder. The two-step helix 2500 VSI pipe die model selected, featuring a lattice basket combined with a spiral mandrel is characterised by an optimal wall thickness distribution without corrugated inner surfaces.

Sales to domestic customers are expected to grow more rapidly than foreign deliveries both this year and next. Ulrich Reifenhäuser explains the positive situation by saying that "with the strong industrial recovery many firms are working at full capacity and are increasingly planning to invest in order to expand". Already at a high level, Asian markets and emerging countries are leading the way this year as far as foreign sales are concerned. However, the recovery has now spread to a large number of countries in Western Europe as well as the US, and demand from these countries for plastics and rubber machinery has also gathered pace.

In 2011 too, German machinery manufacturers will continue to be successful in defending their position as world export leaders. "However, Chinese competitors have the edge in terms of global output of plastics and rubber machinery," said Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the Association. "In 2009, the year of the economic crisis, the Chinese industry ranked first; it was well able to maintain this position in 2010 and is set to continue to expand its share of the world market in the years ahead".