NEWS
Machinery firms provide sales picture during 2020 pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted negatively on sales at major injection moulding machinery groups. The market difficulties – and areas for optimism – were discussed by three compa- nies that gave online press conferences in early October to coincide with new machin- ery launches (see article starting on page 25). Engel is expecting a 20%
drop in turnover in its 2020-2021 financial year compared with €1.3bn turnover it reported for the 2019-2020 year to the end of March.
Market uncertainty Christoph Steger, CSO at Engel Group, said the pandemic has caused a “complicated and difficult market situation”. The automotive market was already weakened by car makers dealing with the fallout from the “Dieselgate” scandal, he said, and the impact of the pandemic meant the market is still not near a recovery. The packaging and technical moulding markets are relatively stable, but Steger said the teletronics sector has declined this year. In global regions, Asia is
Michael Wittmann: “The situation is very fluid, it is changing all the time”
showing the fastest growth and North America is also showing a positive develop- ment. But Europe has been hit hard, said Steger: “The recovery, in our opinion, will take longer than in the US and Asia.” In the Q&A session, he said there are concerns there could be a wave of bankruptcies in Europe at the end of 2020. Stefan Engleder, Engel’s
CEO, said one of the group’s strategy focuses is on digitalisation in injection moulding. “In the Covid crisis, digitalisation is getting faster because everyone is staying at home and using video conferenc- ing tools,” he said, referring also to Engel’s remote
support service. Wittmann Group is
expecting turnover to fall by 17% to €310m this year. In a virtual press conference, Michael Wittmann, CEO, said the second quarter was affected by Covid-19 disrupt- ing markets. “The situation is very fluid, it is changing all the time,” he said. However, he pointed to positive signs in Wittmann’s order book. “There has been a very, very strong recovery in recent weeks. The ques- tion is, how long will it last?” He said the group is seeing stable demand or improve- ment in all sectors except automotive.
Order backlog Looking ahead to 2021, Michael Wittmann said the company anticipates that its order backlog will lead to increased sales. But he cautioned that uncertainty continues to arise from the progress of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has had a good year due to a higher order intake. Gerd Liebig, CEO, said that from January to August 2020, the company’s order intake increased by 24% to €183.7m. This was due to a
number of multiple machine orders in the packaging, medical technology and electronics sectors. By the end of August, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s cumulative turnover amounted to €152.3m and it expects the total to reach €250m for the 2020 financial year, versus €283m in 2019. Incoming orders are forecast at €275m for the full year. The company said it is benefiting from a significant increase in demand for all-electric machines, including its new IntElect 2 machine generation. Compared to ten years ago when only one in five machines was fully electric, now the market share in Europe accounts for 50% of all small and medium-sized injection moulding ma- chines, it said.
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag also announced a restructur- ing of its centralised group sales organisation, focusing on five business develop- ment areas: packaging, automotive and electronics, medical, consumer, and automation. �
www.engelglobal.com �
www.wittmann-group.com �
www.sumitomo-shi-demag.eu
Alpla buys Amcor’s Indian preforms plant
Alpla Group has acquired a PET performs plant at Alandi, near Pune, India, from Amcor, another global packaging firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
6 INJECTION WORLD | September 2020
The facility supplies international and domestic companies in the western part of India, including Coca-Cola and dairy products group Amul. It will be Alpla’s ninth site in India
and its second in this region of the country. The 50 employees will transfer to Alpla. �
www.alpla.com �
www.amcor.com
www.injectionworld.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62
