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| Issue date:01/12/2009 |
| Source:China Plastic & Rubber Journal |
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| EUROMAP's global exports to the most important destinations 2008 (Data include only the top 42 export countries) |
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The sudden coming of financial crisis in last autumn has shaken the whole world, and the decline in purchasing power and demand has affected almost all manufacturing sectors worldwide. When EUROMAP, the European committee of the national associations of plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers, summoned the General Assembly last year on October in Bologna, Italy, the leading administrators from Europe's plastics associations already conceded a slowdown was underway. Nonetheless, they never thought the decline was so steep – one year after, Bernhard Merki, President of EUROMAP, admitted the slump was a very "deep" one, hitting the European machinery builders much more than expected.
The group held the 2009 edition of General Assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark in September 22 to 23. In the meeting a new sets of data concerning the industry’s performance in 2008 was presented, while some forecasts were made and conclusion were drawn too.
In 2008 the European industry is under a pendulum swing – before crisis the business was very prosperous, but the serious fall has not yet turned everything upside down, for some European countries the slump in new orders have already affected their annual balance sheet, but for EUROMAP the overall result for the year 2008 was still positive. Despite modest increase rates – a gain of 1.2% in total production and of 1.5% in exports - 2008 figures marked record values.
While core machinery as well as molds and dies at 1.0 and 1.5% respectively almost showed the same pace, peripheral equipment was still up at 4.1%. Only flexographic printing machines displayed negative growth at -7.0%. EUROMAP's share in the global market in 2008 remained beyond 50% in world production and even grew to a peak value of 57% in world exports based on a declining overall export volume.
These results are explainable by the fact that orders were made long before the crisis. In addition, the machinery business generally requires longer time of delivery, while the whole twelve months in 2008 give manufacturers sufficient time to finish off all the orders. The plastics industry, as widely forecasted, felt the real pressure as 2009 marked the start of the decline of prosperity.
All major applications hit hard
Bernhard Merki |
”In autumn 2009 new order income for plastics and rubber machinery is substantially down in all member countries of the European association. The use of production capacities is much lower than last year," explained Merki. Member countries of EUROMAP include Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and UK.
All over Europe the drop in demand from the automotive suppliers' sector hit first and most noticeably. National scrappage schemes, which some European governments give financial rewards to motorists trading for new cars, temporarily prevented the worst.
Furthermore, overall demand from customers in the field of construction was weak except for insulation. Packaging, too, was affected albeit packaging of consumer goods has developed better than industrial packaging. Medical applications proved to be a constantly growing market for plastics.
Obviously, all-year production volume and other figures are not available yet for the year 2009, but without a doubt the export markets are weakening. During the first half of 2009 exports to Eastern Europe, to North and Latin America decreased on a large scale and at the same time and demand from customers in Asian countries could not compensate the loss. According to official statistics of German and Italian plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers the average export is down 35%. Overall production is expected to fall by about 22% in 2009. The total EUROMAP production volume should thus decrease to approximately 13.6 billion euros.
“The strongest decrease expected by member countries is for the core machinery business at about 30%; this sector holds the biggest share at 62.7%,” said Merki.
Industry expects recovery in 2010
Nevertheless, with the European associations assuming the decline in orders has now bottomed out, they hope a substantial upswing will arrive at the right time – K2010. The European machinery manufactures will be looking forward to the coming of K2010, the world's largest plastics and rubber trade held every three years. The next edition will start from October 27 to November 3, 2010 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Sentiment and business expectations in the plastics and rubber converting industry have improved recently. "The demand for plastics and rubber machines slowly seems to be on the increase again – and yet financing remains an obstacle. The industry expects an upward trend in time for the K2010 at the latest," explained Merki.
Global production development (based on values) for core machinery |
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