Probably (not yet sure) the last issue of “macplasonline” of AMAPLAST, the issue no. 358, in 2017 published today with several interesting news and articles. The main attractive title belonged to a positive forecasts for the new year ahead. PIMI’s users may read part of it below;
The positive trend continues unabated in the Italian import-export market for plastics and rubber processing machinery, equipment and moulds.
According to analyses of Istat foreign trade data for January-September 2017 by the Amaplast Study Center, imports increased by 12% and exports by 16% over the same period in 2016. The increase in the active balance of trade now exceeds 1.7 billion euros, adding seventeen percentage points.
Thanks mainly to the positive trend in exports – recording double-digit growth throughout the full nine months of the Istat data – Amaplast estimates that production at year end could reach a new all-time record of 4.5 billion euros (the previous record was 4.25 billion in 2007), registering at least five percentage points in growth over 2016.
“The success of Italian manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery – who have dominated the world market for decades along with their German colleagues”, states Amaplast president Alessandro Grassi, “is the result of the technological innovation offered to their customers, providing original, optimal solutions for production, recovery, and recycling of plastic and rubber products within an “Industry 4.0” regime”.
Sales abroad – absorbing some 70% of national production in the sector – demonstrate good performance for most machinery types, with the sole exception of plants for mono/multifilament and machines for foamed products. As regards core machinery, above average export figures are registered for thermoforming machines (+51%) and extruders (+19%).
Flexographic printers (+27%) and various categories of auxiliary equipment such as mills, mixers etc. also show good performance. Mould exports (+18%) continue to increase, a category that rep-resents nearly a third of the total.
Performance by geographical area
Europe
The Old Continent’s share has grown to nearly 61%, with the European Union accounting for 50% of the total. The strongly positive performance in Europe (+20%) is attributable to:
- significantly increasing sales to Germany (+25%), Spain (+11%) and France (+15%), the three historical markets for Italian manufacturers;
- strong continued recovery in sales to Russia (+109%), finally bringing the country back into the top ten of export destinations.
The Americas
The trend in exports to the Americas is more than satisfying (+12%), thanks to new impulse in the Nafta markets – particularly the United States, while Mexico’s performance has shrunk – and to the lasting vitality of the South American markets, where Brazil appears to have achieved a stable recovery and has taken the lead.
Asia
Sales continue to diminish to the two principal markets in the Middle East: Iran (-5%) and Saudi Arabia (-34%). Unfortunately, the excellent trend in the United Arab Emirates and Israel is not sufficient to counterbalance this, resulting in an overall negative result (-5%). Exports to the Far East record overall modest yet positive growth (+4%), averaged out over significant variations recorded year after year. China and India, the main markets in the area, still show negative or very weak trends (-11% and +1%, respectively). On the other hand, the Thai, South Korean and Japanese markets are characterized by strongly increasing demand.
For more information please “Read the Main Source“
