NEWS


Engel opens Japanese subsidiary


Plastic Omnium said its 2019 revenues increased. Photo: Plastic Omnium


Bumpy year for auto injection moulders


Major injection moulding processors in the automo- tive sector had a challeng- ing year in 2019 due to a slowdown in car production. But Tier 1 suppliers none- theless showed resilience when reporting their financial results. Magna International


reported group sales were 3% down in 2019 at $39.4bn, but were 2% up if excluding the impact of foreign currency translation and divestitures, net of acquisi- tions. Income from opera- tions before income taxes was $2.22bn, a fall of $728m, while net income was $531m lower at $1.77bn. Don Walker, Magna’s


CEO, said: “2019 was a challenging year on a number of fronts, however we continued to make


significant investments in new technologies to support customer plans to produce lighter, safer, and cleaner vehicles. I believe we are as well-positioned as ever to continue to grow.” Plastic Omnium said its


revenue grew by 11.4% to €9.18bn in 2019, although this was largely the result of acquisitions as like-for-like revenues were only 1.1% higher. The company achieved EBITDA of €1bn and net profit of €258m. For 2020, Plastic Omnium


is projecting it will outper- form worldwide automotive production, as well as grow its operating profit and EBITDA, with an enhanced cost-reduction programme. Last year’s results, Plastic Omnium said, gave it “the means to pursue a strategy


of profitable and sustain- able growth in a complex environment”. Faurecia is also expecting to outperform the global auto production rate, but Patrick Koller, CEO, acknowl- edged 2020 would be tough. “We expect, at this stage, a drop of about 3% in worldwide automotive production. We have the appropriate plans in place to improve our perfor- mance.”


In 2019, Faurecia’s sales


rose by 1.4% to €17.8bn but were down by 3.0% at constant currencies and excluding its acquisition of Clarion. It increased operating income by 0.7% to €1.28bn. � www.magna.com � www.plasticomnium.com � www.faurecia.com


Austrian injection moulding machinery giant Engel has opened a new sales and service subsidiary in Tokyo to strengthen its market presence in Japan. This replaces a collaboration with trading firm Correns. “The Japanese market continues to gain importance for us,” said Gero Willmeroth, Engel’s regional president in East Asia & Oceania. Having its own company there, he added, would help Engel support customers better in such “consult- ing-intensive” matters as new processing tech- nologies and the digitali- sation of injection moulding. Yuji Takeda, who has


previous experience of Engel machines and technologies, has been named managing director of the new subsidiary. He also has an assistant and a service technician working alongside him, with another moving to Japan from Austria to support its development in the first few years. � www.engelglobal.com


IKV to build smart factory in Germany


The Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University has been granted permission to build its Plastics Innovation Centre 4.0 on a 4,200 m² site at Seffenter Weg in Aachen, Germany. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia


4 INJECTION WORLD | March 2020


and the European Regional Develop- ment Fund are providing finance towards the centre’s €19.5m cost. This is described as “a completely


interconnected R&D environment”, which will enable IKV to carry out


training in the digitisation of plastics processing. It will also be a testing environment for future developments within RWTH’s Internet of Production cluster of excellence. � www.ikv-aachen.de


www.injectionworld.com


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