In line with its predictions of December last year (see Plasteurope.com of 08.12.2011), the plastics and rubber committee in the German Engineering Federation VDMA (www.kug.vdma.org) reaffirmed that sales of German plastics and rubber machinery are expected to drop by about 2% this year to a total of almost EUR 6.1 bn. Despite the small decline, association chairman Ulrich Reifenhäuser said the drop was smaller than expected: “As late as October last year, the association had predicted sales to drop by 7% in 2012. However, business performance in the second half of last year and in the first few months of 2012 proved better than anticipated, allowing us to revise our forecast.”

VDMA said it expects the German market to remain strong both this year and in 2013, partly as a result of wage rises and a positive labour market trend, which have stimulated private consumption. “We expect the domestic investment climate to remain positive in 2013,” Reifenhäuser said, adding that, “many German firms will reach capacity limits and are increasingly planning to invest for expansion.” Taking all regions into account, VDMA expects a return to growth in 2013, predicting a rise of 7% to about EUR 6.5 bn.

Last year turned out to be highly profitable for German plastics and rubber machinery makers, who posted a new production record for core machinery and lifted overall sales by 26.1% over 2010 to about EUR 6.2 bn. Exports rose by 30.5% to EUR 4.32 bn or 70% of total sales. The domestic German market saw revenues of EUR 2.8 bn last year. Detailed figures released by VDMA for 2011 show that the sector operated at 92% capacity utilisation, with employment numbers rising to a total of 27,000.

In terms of global plastics machinery production – which reached EUR 28 bn last year – Germany was able to capture a 22% market share in 2011, trailing only after China (30.5%). A distant third was Italy (8.8%), followed by the US (6.5%) and Japan (5.5%). This ranking notwithstanding, Germany remains the world’s leading exporter of plastics and rubber machinery, with a 25.3% share of the global total. Despite occupying top spot in terms of production, China’s share of global exports reached only 11% last year, indicating that most of the country’s output still goes towards the domestic market.

German Plastics Machinery Exports: Top 10 Destinations 2011 (2010)
	2011	2011 / 2010	Share of total exports	Ranking	Ranking
	(million EUR)	(percent)	(percent)	2011	2010
Total exports	4.324
China	766	+30.5	17.7	1	1
USA	454	+34.2	10.5	2	2
Russia	184	+47.8	4.2	3	4
India	175	+24.1	4	4	3
France	169	+46.3	3.9	5	5
South Korea	157	+82.4	3.6	6	13
Turkey	148	+35.1	3.4	7	7
Mexico	138	+45.1	3.2	8	10
Poland	135	+41.7	3.1	9	9
Switzerland	133	+48	3.1	10	11

Source: VDMA

The leading destination for German plastics and rubber machinery was Asia (38.3%), followed by the EU 27 (27%), other European countries (11.8%), North America (11.2%), Latin America (8.6%), Africa (2.7%) and Australia (0.7%). Whereas sales to Asia were up slightly, those to the EU 27 were down over 2010.

As far as the specific machinery is concerned, German production of extruders and extrusion lines was up 14.4% in 2011, reaching just over EUR 1 bn. Blow moulding machinery sales also rose, by 16.3%, and stood at EUR 435m in 2011. With an impressive growth rate of almost 25%, vacuumforming and other thermoforming machines managed to grow to a total production volume of EUR 198m. The only end application that saw a year-on-year drop were presses, which reached a production volume of EUR 98m last year, down 4.4% over 2010.

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VDMA’s Review of Plastics and Rubber Machinery 2011 as a PDF document