"We are probably through the worst," said Dietmar Straub, CEO of KraussMaffei (KM, Munich / Germany; www.kraussmaffei.com) at a press conference held at the “Fakuma” trade fair in Friedrichshafen / Germany on 14 October. Nevertheless, he thinks a full recovery will require more time. "The upswing will take much longer than the steep and rapid downslide."

KraussMaffei is one of the world's leading manufacturers of plastics processing machinery for injection moulding, extrusion and reaction moulding (PU). But the crisis has left its mark on the company, just as it has on all other machinery makers. In the 2008/2009 financial year, which ended 30 September, provisional sales reports indicate a 29% decrease at EUR 746m compared with EUR 1.06 bn in the previous year. Incoming orders declined by 41% to EUR 644m (EUR 1.09 bn).

In the last financial year, KraussMaffei cut 400 positions, bringing its workforce down to 3,600. The company says it found socially responsible solutions for about half the surplus staff while the others were placed in a transfer company. Nevertheless, 500 employees are still working short-time. Straub emphasised that thanks to its having sorted out a financing scheme with the banks during the early stages of the crisis, KraussMaffei did not have to ask for any state aid. He credited the absence of notable problems to the company's strategy of reducing its indebtedness over the last few years.

The order book situation seems to be picking up again, Straub said, showing early signs of a slow recovery. For the immediate future, KM sees India, the Persian Gulf, China and Japan as "medium-term growth drivers". In this regard, Straub pointed out the considerable success its PU technology is currently enjoying in Japan. The injection moulding subsidiary Netstal (Näfels / Switzerland; www.netstal.com) had also done a "good job", he said. Netstal CEO Bernhard Merki confirmed that this summer had seen a trend reversal with regard to incoming orders – see Plasteurope.com of 14.10.2009.