Engel Machinery India, a subsidiary of Austrian injection moulding machinery manufacturer Engel (Schwertberg; www.engelglobal.com), took in “an exceptionally high level of orders” in fiscal 2009/2010 (31 March), the local company’s managing director, Jitendra Devlia, said in late December 2010. Investment in high-quality machines is “constantly increasing,” as the economic crisis has ended and the country “continues on track for modernisation", he added.

India is Asia's second most important market for European machine manufacturers, behind China, Engel points out. In fiscal 2009/2010, demand for plastics is reported to have grown by 15%, more than double the 6% growth seen in previous years. Engel attributes this to “brisk domestic demand” from the automotive, packaging, white goods, agricultural and construction sectors.

The Austrian machinery group has been engaged in India for 12 years with its own distribution and service subsidiary. More than 800 machines have already been installed there. The trend, it says, is towards tiebar-less machines from Engel’s “Victory” series. A further focus is on multi-component applications, said to be much in demand in India.

Engel said earlier that it expects to end fiscal 2010/11 with business close to pre-crisis level – see Plasteurope.com of 01.11.2010. Sales of EUR 570m are predicted, following the slump in 2009/2010 to EUR 358m from EUR 591m in 2008/2009.