Speaking at a company press conference on 13 October 2009 at the "Fakuma" trade fair in Friedrichshafen / Germany, Michael Hehl, one of the managing partners of injection moulding machinery maker Arburg (Lossburg / Germany; www.arburg.com), described the overall situation as one of "stabilisation at a low level". At present, he said, orders were down 50% compared to the previous year, but added that the situation would probably improve slightly thanks to the minor recovery during the course of the year.

"We are thinking medium- and long-term. That is why the shareholders are willing to make certain sacrifices," said Hehl. So far, he said, redundancies had been avoided, and – provided the situation does not take an unexpected turn for the worse – that will remain the case. Nevertheless, Hehl expects short-time working to continue in 2010 as well. "It will accompany us for quite some time yet, perhaps for the entire year."

Arburg remains the market leader in Germany "by a long chalk", said sales manager Helmut Heinson, but added that the total number of new injection moulding machines on the market had more than halved. Nevertheless, Heinson sees indications that the slump has now bottomed out in Germany, with the order book situation slowly restabilising. In China and Brazil, Arburg’s sales actually increased slightly in 2009, but sales in North America – Arburg's second-largest market – as well as Mexico and Europe fell drastically.

Despite this trend, Heinson said the company would step up its North American activities. US production facilities are scheduled to be modernised as part of a goverment-supported project. Against this backdrop Arburg hopes to score points with its fully automatic solutions and also intends to concentrate on electrical machines that have been well received in the US. Today, one third of Arburg's sales come from the "Alldrive" and "Hidrive" machines. The classic "Allrounder" line accounts for another third, while the special "Golden Edition" models make up the rest.