Germany’s plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers expect sales to increase by 3% in the current year, meaning that output will hit the EUR7 billion mark for the first time. In 2015, sales are set to rise by 4% to just under EUR7.3 billion.

Ulrich Reifenhäuser, Chairman of the Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association, explains this development: “At K‘2013 in October, the Association predicted an increase of 6% for 2014. On the basis of the data from the past six months and following the significant improvement in last year’s results, the figures have now been revised downwards.” In 2013, output growth amounted to 3.9%, while exports were up by 4.3%. Both figures set new records for the industry.

China and US sales markets bolster foreign business

Sales to foreign customers are set to record small increases in both 2014 and 2015. “The outlook for the industry’s two most important markets, China and the US, continues to be positive, even though the very high recent growth rates will level off,” confirms Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the Association. “However, the trend in deliveries to Russia, Brazil, Turkey and India is markedly negative. In Russia, the third largest sales market of the past few years, the potential effects of the political crisis surrounding Ukraine are not yet reflected in the figures at all.”

Domestic business boosts sales

Some weaknesses were identified in the past year regarding orders received from domestic customers. But the order intake from Germany has been gaining momentum again for several months now with growth rates well ahead of those recorded for foreign orders. “We are working on the assumption that, given the general increase in investment in plant and equipment, this welcome development is set to continue this year and next, thereby providing a major stimulus,” confirms Ulrich Reifenhäuser.

Germany continues to be the world’s leading exporter

German foreign deliveries of plastics and rubber machinery have achieved a small increase in their share of global exports: almost a quarter of all machines exported (24.5%) was manufactured in Germany. China ranks second, a long way behind, with a share of 12.3%, Japan is third with 9.9% and Italy fourth with a 9.1% share.