Asia buying more German plastics and rubber machinery than the European Union (EU)

13-Apr-10

As the level of processing expertise rises around the globe with increased demands on plastics processors, processors in fast-developing regions opt to buy top-end machinery. This seems to be a phenomenon in Asia, which now accounts for more German plastics and rubber machinery purchases than processors in the European Union (EU), as reported in Plastics Today. According to the German Plastics and Rubber Machinery Assn. (Frankfurt), over one-third of Germany's total exports of plastics and rubber machinery were destined for Asia in 2009, rising from 29.1% to 36.5%. In terms of volume, however, exports to Asia fell by 17.2% in 2009. Globally, German machinery manufacturers account for about 25% of total plastics processing machinery sales. Exports to Central and South Asia grew by 19.6%, deliveries to South East Asia were only slightly lower than 2008, down 3.6%, while those to the Near and Middle East fell by 21.4%, while East Asia was down by as much as 26.2%. Those drops, however, were not as severe as the 33.9% fall in 2009 in Germany’s exports of plastics processing machinery. German exports to Central America were down 20.6%, fell 44% within the EU, dipped almost 39% to North America and fell by 39.5% to South America. The gain in Asia was offset by losses in the 27 countries of the EU.