NEWS
Italy sales hit a high
for 2023 Amaplast, the trade body for Italian plastics and rubber machinery makers, says sales hit a new high in 2023.
New figures show
full-year sales of €4.8 billion (US$5.2bn) – a rise of nearly 3% on 2022. This updates a draft estimate from December 2023. The rise was fuelled by
a near-11% rise in exports – which was partially offset by a fall in domestic demand of more than 7%. Exports of nearly €3.6bn (US$3.9bn), which make up almost 70% of produc- tion, showed strong growth for all regions – especially 20% to North America and 36% to Africa, compared to 2022. Europe remained the main destination for equipment. Exports of extruders
grew by about 7%, but this was lower than the “double digit” growth seen for most types of prime machinery, said Amaplast. �
www.amaplast.org
Europe PVC recycling declined 9% in 2023
Recycling rates of PVC in Europe fell by more than 9% in 2023, according to VinylPlus. For the year as a whole, it
reported that nearly 738,000 tonnes of PVC waste were recycled in the EU-27, plus Norway, Switzerland and the UK – a fall of 9.3%. This represents around 24% of all PVC waste generated in Europe. Of the total, 62% was pre- consumer waste – where factories reprocess their own waste internally – and 38% was post-consumer waste (where PVC is collected after use). In 2023, pre-consumer
recycling fell 10%, while post-consumer recycling fell by around 7%. Comparisons are hard to
make because product types were reclassified between 2022 and 2023. However, recycling of
‘flexibles’ – including ‘coated fabrics’ and ‘flooring’ – ap- peared to decline by around 14% in 2023. Recycling of
available – and post-con- sumer recycling, due to a decline in the construction industry. The flooring and pipes sectors registered the largest decline, especially in pre-consumer waste recycling.
Demand for recycled
Schellerer: “The recycling system continues to be under scrutiny from regulators”
‘rigid film’ was stable at around 20,000 tonnes. VinylPlus said there were
several reasons for the decrease: competitive prices of virgin material, including imports; a downturn in building and construction; and the impact of European regula- tions on legacy additives. Recycling and converting also declined across Europe, for both pre-con- sumer recycling – where lower production reduced the amount of waste
PVC (rPVC ) fell more than 12% compared to previous year, said VinylPlus. Regis- tered uptake of rPVC from converters was around 470,000 tonnes in 2023, a 16% fall. The VinylPlus 2030 commitment has a target to recycle 900,000 tonnes/year of PVC by 2025, and 1million tonnes/year by 2030. “High inflation impacted the construction sector, putting recyclers in diffi- culty and reducing demand for recyclates in the EU,” said Karl-Martin Schellerer, chairman of VinylPlus. “In addition, the recycling system continues to be under scrutiny from regulators.” �
www.vinylplus.eu
‘Record attendance’ at Chinaplas 2024
Adsale, the organiser of Chinaplas, says it achieved a new record for both exhibitor and visitor numbers at the latest show in Shanghai. It says that, as well as hosting 4,495 exhibiting companies,
it attracted more than 320,000 visitors – almost 30% higher than its 2023 Shenzhen exhibition. The number of overseas visitors exceeded 73,000, accounting for nearly 23% of the total. “We have surpassed the number of exhibitors, total visitor
count, and overseas visitor count of any previous edition of Chinaplas,” said Ada Leung, general manager of Adsale. �
www.chinaplasonline.com
6 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | Summer 2024
www.pipeandprofile.com
IMAGE: VINYLPLUS
IMAGE: ADSALE
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