Plastics and rubber machinery get “surprise” boost in Europe

12 September 2006 – The first half of 2006 saw a “surprise upsurge” in western European orders for plastics and rubber process machinery, according to Euromap.

The machinery organisation said 51% of respondents to its latest Trends Survey reported turnover levels as “good”, which was double the percentage recorded in the previous survey for the second half of 2005. Euromap’s survey amalgamates the results of 179 plastics and rubber machinery companies from Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France and the UK.

The market for machinery in western Europe has declined in the past few years, but in the first half of this year, 42% of companies said they experienced improvement in new orders from the region. Eastern Europe showed similar growth levels, very much in line with expectation.

In contrast, the market in China – which had previously been showing strong demand for European machinery – was less encouraging, with just 20% of respondents reporting improvement in orders from the country. The Asian market underperformed against expectation, with 18% of companies seeing an improvement versus the 26% anticipated.

The outlook is steady for the second half of 2006, with few companies expecting deterioration in the present situation. Eastern Europe and North America are the most positively viewed markets with western Europe closely following. Only modest improvement is predicted for China.