Thanks to a lively volume of incoming orders since the end of 2005, the Engel group (Schwertberg / Austria; www.engelglobal.com), world´s leading manufacturer of single branded injection moulding machines, expects sales in financial year 2006/2007 to bounce back to the record level of 2004/2005 following a downturn in 2005/2006 (31 March 2006). This was the message from Peter Neumann, CEO of the Engel holding, at a press conference preceding the "Engel Symposium 2006", held from 17-18 May. Neumann also spoke of wide-ranging capital investment over the next two years.

Order income in the first eight months of the 2005/06 was particularly disappointing, the CEO said. Consolidated group sales for the full year were down 7% to EUR 546m and only 2,725 machines were sold. Nevertheless, he said, Engel performed slightly better than its competitors – according to the European plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers´ association, Euromap (www.euromap.org), the market declined by 10% overall in that time period.

The setback was mainly in the once again weakening small machinery segment. Geographically, Europe, especially the "EU 15" and Germany, did not perform well. In North America, the poor sales performance of small-sized machinery was more than compensated by sales of large machines, and business there improved slightly to USD 123.5m (USD 119.1m). While trade with the new EU countries picked up, Asia remained well below expectations, despite the fact that Korean production managed to increase sales by more than 50% to EUR 31m.

The family-owned group has budgeted capital spending of EUR 45m a year over the next two year, including EUR 25m for a large new machine factory at Shanghai / China, due to start operation in December 2006. Injection moulding equipment will be supplied from Austria to ensure optimum technological quality.

At Engel´s Schwertberg headquarters, where a clean-room pilot plant (class 1000) was recently dedicated, a new large-capacity machinery plant with a floor space of 12,000 m², will be built in two stages over the next three years, also at a cost of EUR 25m. The automation centres in Hagen / Germany, St. Valentin / Austria and Spain are to be expanded. Facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland are to be upgraded with various new buildings, while new offices will be opened in Russia and the Ukraine. Support for customers in the former CIS states of Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will be upgraded.

As regards technology, Engel is concentrating on all-electric machines, where Hans Wobbe, head of engineering sees "the future of injection moulding." At present, the selling price of all-electric machinery is around 10% higher than that of competitive hydraulic machinery, although the gap has narrowed from more than 30% previously. For Engel, the breakthrough in Europe for all-electric machinery will come when then the price gap has shrunk to nothing – a situation Wobbe sees as not that far away. While the group feels it still has a long way to catch up to Japanese competitors who are world leaders in this segment, Neumann said the Austrian group´s prime goal is to be "market leader for all-electric injection moulding machines in Europe."