Demag Plastics Group (DPG, Schwaig / Germany; www.dpg.com) is to cease production at its site in Cleveland, Ohio / USA. The facility, which was formerly operated under the Van Dorn brand, will in future be restricted to selling and servicing injection moulding machines. The US market has more than halved in the last few years from 7,500 to 3,400 machines annually, and there has been a pronounced shift to electrical machines, said CEO Klaus F. Erkes, explaining the move. Under these circumstances, the continued manufacture of all-hydraulic units made no sense, he said.

DPG will in future manufacture the specialised high-tech machines at its German plants in Schwaig and Wiehe for global delivery. Hydraulic standard units, all-electric models and “Titan” large-volume machines presently produced in Cleveland will now be manufactured in Ningbo / China and Chennai / India. It is likely that the production changes are in part due to the opening of a new, larger production facility in Ningbo by DPG in June.