While competitors such as Arburg and Engel expect significant declines in sales for the current business year, Austrian injection moulding machine manufacturer Wittmann (Kottingbrunn; www.wittmann-group.com) said it is expecting sales of EUR 410 mn in 2023, a 9% increase. 

The reason is the high order backlog that the company still has from 2022, managing director Michael Wittmann told Plasteurope.com in an interview at the Fakuma trade fair in Germany. For another two months or so, the machine maker will be busy working off old orders, he added.

After that, however, as with competitors, the lean period is expected to begin. New orders have also collapsed this year, Wittmann said. He did not give an exact figure but referred to estimates from industry associations for a slump of around 30%. Sharply increased material and energy prices, high interest rates, market saturation after the post-pandemic order boom, and uncertainties regarding economic development have led to a cooling off on the customer side, Wittmann explained. 

Related: Turnover at Engel expected to decline by 6%

The head of the company noted that he does not expect a noticeable recovery in demand before the second quarter of 2024. However, signs of a slight rebound in some countries in Western Europe give him cause for cautious optimism, he said. Nevertheless, he added that he expects turnover in 2024 to be at the level of 2022 – this means revenues of around EUR 375 mn.

Currently, Wittmann generates about 60% of its turnover in Europe, another 30% in the Americas (mainly in the US and Mexico), and 10% in Asia (China and India). To increase its presence in Asia, the company plans to open a sales office in Vietnam in the near future.

Meanwhile, expansion is underway in Hungary – a factory for sheet metal processing is to be built near the existing plant in Mosonmagyaróvár by 2025. Wittmann declined to details on the amount of the capacity expansion or the investment sum. It is too early for that, he said, as project planning for the plant has just begun.