The Italien Plastics and Rubber Machinery Industry

The Italien Plastics and Rubber Machinery Industry

The ensemble of the Italian manufacturers of plastics and rubber machinery and moulds forms an outstanding industry (represented by ASSOCOMAPLAST) that, since many years, has been playing a notable role in the sectoral world context.

It is significant to remark that, in terms of production capacity and export volume, the Italian suppliers of this field are second in Europe (behind the German manufacturers) and third (after the Japanese one) on world scale. Generally speaking, the good results of the Italian manufacturers of machines to process plastics and rubber, in the past and likely in the future, can be related to their steady technological evolution, also by straight matching customers' demand, and to the good quality/price ratio.

As for the elapsed year, despite the world economic downturn, the first outlook seems satisfactory for 2001 as the Italian trade association recorded a 4,2% and a 6,7% growth in turnover and export respectively. It is worthwhile to underline that the fore-casted export increase was 5% just after September 11.The Italian plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers believe they will reach by the end of the current year a turnover at the same level of 2001, after the recovery signals of the orders recorded at the end of February and following the negative trend experienced all along the period October 2001 to January 2002.According to the monthly sectoral survey carried out by ASSOCOMAPLAST among a selected panel of plastic and rubber processors, the forecasts for the next 3-4 months are optimistic. From the last recording, April 2002, there is an improvement of the domestic and foreign order portfolios; anyway, processors in southern Italy do not feel such a considerable increase.As for the different processing technologies, the manufacturers of extruded pro-ducts (film, pipes ect.) have better expectations, whilst injection moulders (first of all technical components) foresee a certain steadiness.

As far as application markets are concerned, the best forecasts concern packaging (bottles, containers etc.) and building sectors; electrical/ electronic market could join some minor growth.

Still negative the expectations of the automotive industry. Regarding the sector of the extrusion lines, the concentration of the relevant manufacturers in some industrial districts in four Italian regions is noticeable: Lombardia, Piemonte, Emilia and Veneto.

The major technological areas are those of the production of win-dows profiles, film and sheets, but there are hi-tech capabilities in the field of the granulation and in the post-use plastics recovery.

The top five destination countries of the Italian export of extruders and extrusion lines are: Germany (8,9% of the total), China (8,6%), France (8,3%), Spain (5,8%) and United States (5,2%).

The trend of the export-import of extruders during the last five years was positive and in favour of the Italian industry, as per the tables (putting the first reference year 1997 = 100).

For more information about the ITALIAN PLASTICS AND RUBBER MACHINERY (Product Information, Company Reports etc. please contact the Publishing Company VM-VERLAG GmbH, e-mail: [email protected]