Orders for extrusion machinery grew by more than 50%
Krauss-Maffei’s sales fell by 3.6% in the first half of its 2005/06 financial year, but incoming orders increased by 8.9% to pass the E300m level (reaching E305.6m) for the first time in the company’s history.
Chairman Josef Märtl said that both orders and sales in the full year 2005/06 are expected to be slightly higher than in 2004/05.
Extrusion machinery orders did best out of the three categories of plastic processing machinery produced by Krauus-Maffei, with orders up 50.5% to E59.3m. Märtl revealed that demand in eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey has contributed most to the order growth.
A housing boom in Turkey has come from new rules on mortgages for private house building, with Märtl observing that it “is driving demand for profile and extrusion lines”. Otherwise, it has been sheet lines that have done well, with applications such as decking, cladding and furniture.
The polyurethane based reaction processing machinery orders grew by 6.1% to E48.5m and injection moulding machinery orders were up by just 1.2% to E197.9m.
Märtl says he is not happy from a sales point of view on progress of the new Ex all-electric injection moulding machines, stressing however “we have really started now, although the price for the machines is markedly higher than for hydraulic ones”. He revealed that the number of Ex machines sold “has not been in three digits”.
