Austrian injection moulding machinery maker Engel (Schwertberg; www.engelglobal.com) said the last time its order books were this full as was in 2018, and revenues could grow again in the fiscal year to 31 March 2022 after a second straight decline. ”We have genuinely sky-rocketed out of the crisis,” said CEO Stefan Engleder, but he warned of new headwinds amidst bottlenecks in the supply chain.

The turnaround from problems related to the Covid-19 pandemic emerged in November 2020 as demand from the automotive industry – a key sector – improved again after two very difficult years. Despite the revival, revenue in the year to 31 March 2021 fell 15% to EUR 1.1 bn, a decline that was less than the 19% drop in the previous 12 months (see Plasteurope.com of 16.07.2020). Engel CFO Christoph Steger said if the current upward trend continues, growth of up to 20% for the current year is “realistic”.

Regional revenue contributions reflected the impact of the pandemic. In the past fiscal year, Europe accounted for 45% of group sales, down from 54% in the previous year. The Americas and Asia increased their share, from 25% to 30% and 20% to 23% respectively. “In the meantime, Europe is also well on course again,” Steger said.

The company cited “significant” growth at the technical moulding division, which includes segments for domestic products, sports, games, and leisure. Engel also noted further growth at the medical business unit.

The machine maker said sustainability and digitalisation are drivers of further growth, but it warned that the pandemic has not yet been defeated. Conducting daily business is still difficult amidst lockdowns and travel restrictions in some countries.

The biggest headwind, however, comes from delivery bottlenecks in raw materials and components, according to the company. “The supply situation will see us face a couple of challenges in the next few months,” Engleder said. He noted that the cost gap is continuing to widen, with overheated markets and rising inflation aggravating the problem. “This will also have an impact on prices in machine manufacturing.”

Engel said it is supporting social enterprise group Plastic Bank (Vancouver, British Columbia / Canada; www.plasticbank.org) by financing the collection of at least 120 t of plastic waste in Indonesia, where large quantities of trash are still disposed of at sea.

In developing countries with insufficient waste management infrastructure, Plastic Bank sets up collection points where the local populace can hand in plastic waste they have collected. They either get paid with money or receive social services. Plastic Bank then processes the waste and resells the recycled material to manufacturing companies in the form of pellets.

Plastic Bank cooperates also with discount supermarket Aldi and consumer group Henkel (Düsseldorf / Germany; www.henkel.com) to generate recyclates via these collection points (see Plasteurope.com of 09.05.2019, 23.11.2017 and 05.09.2019).