NEWS


Italian machine exports fuel 10% sales growth


Italian machinery manufac- turers reported a 10% increase in sales last year – buoyed by a large increase in sales to some of its leading export markets. Amaplast, the trade


organisation that represents around 170 manufacturers of plastics and rubber machin- ery, said that total sales rose to €4.67bn in 2017. Of this, €3.3bn was due to exports – which increase by 12% compared to 2016.


Sales to Germany – its top


foreign market – rose by nearly 20%, to exceed


€481m. It raised sales to its second largest market, the USA, by a similar amount to reach €276m. And, while sales to France rose more than 21% to €159m and to Spain by nearly 5% (reach- ing €148m), there were some declines – notably to Mexico (down nearly 17% to €143m) and Poland (a fall of nearly 4% to €159m). “The order portfolio horizon for Italian manufac- turers has been consider- ably extended,” said Alessandro Grassi, Amaplast president. “Many companies


Top 10 export markets for Italian machinery (%) Country Germany USA


France Poland Spain


Mexico China


+19.7 +20.4 +21.5 -3.7


+8.1 -16.7 -2.5


Czech Republic UK


Romania Others


+25.9 +1.1


1,467 Source: Amaplast


+68.6 +11.8


14.5 8.3 4.8 4.8 4.5 4.3 4.1 3.8 3.6 2.9


44.4


2017 sales (€m) Rise/fall (%) % of total 481 276 160 159 148 143 134 127 119 96


are able to plan production at least to the end of the year – and quite a few are having difficulty keeping up with customer requests.” Further down the list,


both Romania and Russia increased orders by almost 70% in 2017 – with sales to each country reaching almost €100m. Sales to Asia were


generally weak, with modest sales increases to the Middle East offset by declines in more important markets like India and China. In South America, sales to Brazil rose by 40% to exceed €50m In addition to healthy


exports, domestic sales also rose by 10%, to €2.3bn, while machinery imports were up 14% to €970m. Grassi added that the


forthcoming Plast exhibition – held in Milan in late May and early June – will help to accelerate these gains. “Participants are confi-


dent of doing significant amounts of business and expanding their order books directly,” he said. � www.amaplast.org


ECHA:


no need to act on DINP


The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) says that di-isononyl phthalate (DINP), a commonly used plasticiser, does not warrant classification for reprotoxic effects under the European Union’s Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation. ECHA’s risk assessment


committee (RAC) per- formed a hazard assess- ment of DINP and con- cluded that it could safely be used in all current applications. The proposal to classify DINP was originally submitted to ECHA by Denmark in February 2015. Michela Mastrantonio, manager at European Plasticisers, which repre- sents manufacturers of DINP, said: “We are confident this brings a reassuring message to the industry, the value chain and consumers on the safety and sustainability of DINP and flexible vinyl articles made with DINP.” � www.europeanplasticisers.eu


PPI adds geothermal industry division


The Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI) has created a new group that will focus specifically on the geothermal industry. t will sit within PPI’s building and construction division. “PPI and its members promote the adoption of geothermal technologies to help reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling buildings, which saves owners money,” said


8 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | April 2018


Lance MacNevin, director of engineer- ing at PPI.


PPI has also joined the Geothermal


Exchange Organization (GEO) and was a first-time sponsor for the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) conference, held in March. The committee’s activities include:


supporting industry efforts to update geothermal standards and codes –


such as ANSI/CSA/IGSHPA C448, IAPMO’s UMC and USHGC, and ICC’s IMC and IRC; working with IGSHPA, GEO and other related organisations; publishing documents about the use of plastic pipe for geothermal applica- tions; and acting as a technical re- source for geothermal system design- ers, for plastic pipe technologies. � www.plasticpipe.org


www.pipeandprofile.com


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