Injection moulding machine manufacturer Engel (Schwertberg, Austria; www.engelglobal.com) believes it will be able to close its current 2023/24 business year (31.3.) “with a black eye”. CEO Stefan Engleder said at the Fakuma trade fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany, that he expects annual sales of EUR 1.6 bn. Compared to the previous year’s figure of EUR 1.7 bn, this would be a minus of 6%. As is increasingly being heard in the mechanical engineering industry, he cited declining orders worldwide as the reason for this drop. 

“The low order intake, which has persisted for months, is having an effect above all in the last quarter of the current financial year,” said Engleder. “We are currently consuming our remaining order backlog.” However, new orders are not coming in, he added, “The downward trend is particularly pronounced in Europe.”

The high energy prices in Germany are causing companies to shift their investments abroad. At the same time, however, he observed that small and medium-sized plastics processors in particular were shuttering their business activities and ceasing operations in view of the uncertain economic outlook. “We see the danger of de-industrialisation for German-speaking countries,” warned the company boss. Business is threatening to migrate to Eastern Europe or even North Africa (to Morocco, in particular).

Engel is reacting to the slump in orders by cutting staff. Jobs have already been cut in the large machine manufacturing sector, and such measures will also have to be taken for the small and medium-sized machine sector if the situation does not improve by the end of the first quarter of 2024, Engleder explained.