Rubber for China, business for Europe

A rather good indicator for a booming electronics industry is the need for casings, housings, seals and many other things made of plastic and rubber. It is no surprise that China has a huge demand for these kinds of materials, but Central Europe is profiting from the situation.

According to the VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau), the German plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers expect an all-time high in 2011. They seem to be set to achieve sales growths of around 18 per cent this year, with output rising to some 5.8 billion euro. On this basis, further growth of just below 7 per cent is forecast for 2012. »This means that the industry has returned to the high pre-crisis levels more quickly than expected and will top the previous record set in 2008,« Ulrich Reifenhäuser, Chairman of the VDMA Association, announced.

(Mr.  Reifenhäuser, courtesy of VDMA)

Sales to domestic customers are expected to grow more rapidly than foreign deliveries both this year and next. Ulrich Reifenhäuser explains the positive situation by saying that »with the strong industrial recovery many firms are working at full capacity and are increasingly planning to invest in order to expand«. Already at a high level, Asian markets and emerging countries are leading the way this year as far as foreign sales are concerned.

However, the recovery has now spread to a large number of countries in Western Europe as well as the US, and demand from these countries for plastics and rubber machinery has also gathered pace. In 2011 too, German machinery manufacturers will continue to be successful in defending their position as world export leaders. »However, Chinese competitors have the edge in terms of global output of plastics and rubber machinery,« said Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the Association.

 (Mr. Kühmann, source: VDMA)

»In 2009, the year of the economic crisis, the Chinese industry ranked first; it was well able to maintain this position in 2010 and is set to continue to expand its share of the world market in the years ahead«.

Comments

[Lidija]

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