German machinery sales dip in 2014

European Plastics News report

Frankfurt, Germany – At an expected €6.7 billion, sales of German plastics and rubber processing machinery in 2014 will be just below last year’s record, according to German trade body, the VDMA.

While domestic orders were up 20 percent in the first eight months of this year, exports were 3 percent lower, the group reported.

The VDMA said the “silver lining” was the 10% sales increase it had seen in the Eurozone.

“German deliveries abroad have decelerated sharply, falling by 5.3 percent in the first half of the year,” said Thorsten Kühmann, the VDMA’s managing director.

“The export picture is dominated by negative trends in demand from and exports to Brazil, Russia, India as well as Turkey and Mexico. China, too, is weakening.”

Kühmann said sales to the European Union 28 was a welcome development.

“The increase in demand is making up for the sharp fall in Russia. Growth has come from our East European neighbours in particular, but also from Italy, Spain and Portugal,” while German deliveries to the US and Canada continued “at a high level”.

While sales in 2014 will be lower than last year VDMA chairman Ulrich Reifenhäuser said the industry would bounce back in 2015 with a 4 percent increase in sales, although he acknowledged that various events around the world were “increasingly affecting sentiment in the firms concerned”.

The VDMA said its upbeat forecast for next year “assumes that capital investment in Germany will continue to grow and that the trend in the top sales markets of China and the US will remain positive”.