The European manufacturers for an improvement in the plastics sector in 2010

"Manufacturers of plastic already predicted the deep depression and the hit that has received the sector, which has been much higher than expected last year in the General Assembly in Bologna," said Bernhard Merki, President of the EuromapAssociation European of manufacturers of machinery for plastics and rubber.

Although the drop in new orders during the fourth quarter of 2008 really affected the annual assessment of some countries, Euromap concluded with a final results of 2008 positive, although with modest increases (increase of 1.2% in production and 1.5 per cent in export).

While the market of the machinery and the mould climbed 1% and 1.5% respectively, peripheral equipment still grew by 4.1%. Flexographic printing machines only showed a negative growth of - 7.0%.

EUROMAP estimated that the global average of the market in 2008 continued to grow more than 50% in production and even more on export with a 57% volume.

"In the autumn of this year demand for plastics and rubber machinery has decreased in all countries members of the European Union." The use of these has decreased greatly in comparison with 2008 "explained Merki.

Across Europe, demand from the suppliers of the automotive sector has been the first that has fallen. Demand in the construction sector has also been very weak, except in the segment of the isolation. As for the container and the packaging, it also has been affected, although the line of packaging for the consumer has evolved more than the industrial. Even so, applications for medicine industry have demonstrated its growing for the plastic market.

Applications for the field of medicine have demonstrated its growing for the plastic market.

Photo: Alaa Hamed

The majority of export markets for European producers of plastics and rubber machinery showed weaknesses. During the first half of the 2009 exports to Europe from the East, North America and Latin America decreased considerably and demand in Asian countries could not compensate for the losses. According to official statistics of the German and Italian manufacturers of machinery for plastics, export decreased 35%.

It is expected that all production falls by 22% in 2009. EUROMAP calculates the volume of production to decrease approximately 13,600 million euros.

"The strong decrease expected by manufacturers for the machinery sector, excluding peripherals or molds, is 30%." This sector expected to improve by 62.7% in 2010 ", said Merki.

The European Association provides that the decline in orders has already bottomed and the expectations of the manufacturing industries have improved lately. "Demand for plastics and rubber machinery seems to be is slowly rising again (though funding remained an obstacle)." The industry expects a trend of improvement in the K 2010 ", concluded Merki.