news
GKV: German plastics converters post record turnover of €61bn
Plastics processors in Germany posted a record turnover of nearly €61bn last year, following a 3% rise in results. The results were an-
nounced by the GKV trade association, which represents German plastics converters. Growth in the building
sector – which is of most relevant to pipe and profile extrusion – rose nearly 5% to exceed €19bn. This equated to a slight volume growth, from 4.9m to 5.0m tonnes. For comparison, packaging
rose by more than 4% to exceed €14bn, while technical parts – largely injection moulded parts for the automotive industry – rose
Baerlocher invests in
metal soaps Baerlocher USA is to install a new reactor at its site in Cincinnati in the US to expand capacity for calcium, zinc, sodium and other metal soaps by 50%. The facility will be
operational in June of this year and will meet growing demand for the products from the North American polyolefin and PVC sectors, says the company. Metal soaps are used as acid scavengers, stabilisers, lubricants and mould release agents. ❙
www.baerlocher.com
www.pipeandprofile.com
Westerheide: “We expect to follow the successes of last year in 2017, and achieve sales growth in 2018”
1.7% to nearly €18bn. While the number of
industry employees remained stable – up a fraction to 317,000 – the volume of parts
increased by 3.6% to more than 14m tonnes. Dirk Westerheide, GKV
president, indicated that progress was likely to continue this year and next year. “At the start of this year, the mood in the plastics process- ing industry is moving between uncertainty and confidence,” he said. “However, confidence is high – and we are optimistic that we will follow the successes of last year in 2017, and achieve sales growth of 2-2.5% in 2018.” A GKV survey also sug-
gested a positive outlook: 32% of respondents intend to increase investment this year, while 58% will maintain it and
10% will reduce it. At the same time, one-third expect to increase staff numbers, with only 7% expecting a reduction. A separate GKV survey, dealing with issues such as trade between the US and EU, and the UK ‘Brexit’ vote, revealed relatively high confidence: 4% thought that Brexit would be very damaging to business, while 44% thought it would make no difference. At the same time – on the
potential scrapping of the US-EU TTIP trade pact – 2% thought this would be very damaging, while more than half expected it to make no difference. ❙
www.gkv.de
Investing in large diameter pipe
Armtec of Canada has made a multi-million dollar invest- ment in equipment to make large diameter HDPE storm sewer pipe for public and private infrastructure projects across Canada. The equipment will produce flexible pipe with bell and gasket joints – brand-
ed Boss 3000. The company recently
invested $8m on equipment to make HDPE pipe for the Canadian agricultural market. “With large diameter HDPE pipe in our portfolio, Armtec will be able to offer alterna- tives for storm sewer pipe,
which offer advantages over traditional materials,” said Dawn Nigro, president of the company’s drainage solutions division. Armtec has supplied into the Canadian drainage market for more than 100 years. ❙
www.armtec.com
April 2017 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 5
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