German, Italian machinery sales strong.

1997 was a record year for the German rubber and plastics machinery manufacturers, while their counterparts in Italy posted their third straight year of increased sales.

Germany's rubber and plastics machinery trade association, VDMA, reported growth in production value of 13.4% to 6.75 bn DM. The amount, which excludes molds and dies, topped the previous record set in 1990. More than 75% of the German machinery is exported, and that sector also set a record by increasing 12.5% to 5.19 bn DM.

The manufacture of molds and dies increased 13.7% in 1997 to 2.5 bn DM.

Injection molding machines led the increase with a 30.8% rise to 1.69 bn DM. Extruders and extrusion systems increased 6.7% to 1.29 bn DM while blow molding machines continued their strong growth with a 13.6% increase to 422 million DM. Exports for injection molding machines increased 12.2% in 1997, while extruder shipments rose slightly at less than one percent and blow molding machine exports declined almost 2%.

In Italy, the national trade association, Assocomaplast, said machinery production increased 7% in 1997 to almost 6,000 billion lira, with exports representing nearly two-thirds of the total.

Exports increased for almost every machinery category, led by the more than 52% increase for calenders and laminators to 43.1 million lira. Injection molding machines remain the top volume with a 4% increase to just over 406 million lira. Extruders increased 5% to almost 377 million lira, and presses increased slightly to 133 million lira. Presses for tires and inner tubes suffered a decline of nearly 50% over the previous year.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Italian plastics and rubber machinery and molds (billion lira)

                    1995     1996     1997
Production         5.100    5.550    5.950
Export             3.144    3.804    3.978
Import               704      834      868
Domestic market    2.660    2.580    2.840
Trade balance     +2.440   +2.970   +3.110