October, 19, 2016 - Assocomaplast (the Italian trade association, member of Confindustria, including over 160 manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery, equipment and moulds) is supporting the national participation at K2016. In addition to that, lots of novelties are displayed by the Association during the exhibition in Düsseldorf. In fact, at Assocomaplast stand (Hall 16, stand A56) many materials have been distributed: the new Members' List, MacPlas special issues in Italian and English and the first promotional brochure of PLAST (Milan, May 29/June 1, 2018), the largest exhibition of the sector in Europe in 2018, taking place within the important initiative named The Innovation Alliance. These publications have been graphically renewed to be more appealing to the more than 200,000 visitors expected in Düsseldorf.

The stand fitting is also original. Inside Assocomaplast´s stand are displayed some works of art of Lady Be, an Italian pop artist famous for her “Contemporary Mosaics” which are made of recycled materials (toys, cutlery, jewellery, bottle caps, etc.) - everything made of plastics. The aim of the artist is to make us reflect on recycling and environmental sustainability of plastics as a material with unlimited resources.

Before the exhibition the Association realized an advertising campaign to highlight the important presence of the Italian companies at K 2016. For this purpose, a special issue of MacPlas (MacPlas International at K 2016) was sent before the exhibition to about 4,000 processing companies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and also to the foreign press.

At Assocomaplast booth is also being displayed, on a large panel, the logos of all Members (exhibiting or not) to stress the representativeness of the national industry.

Assocomaplast interviewed some Italian exhibitors, who were satisfied with their meetings both in terms of numbers and quality, thus confirming the presence of an attentive target interested in the technological innovations on show this year.

It is worth noting that the Italian presence at the three-year German fair is second only to that of the hosts, with some 400 exhibitors, over half of them manufacturers of machinery, equipment and moulds, many of whom are members of Assocomaplast.

K exhibition also marks the official opening of the promotional campaign for PLAST 2018 (Milan, 29 May – 1 June 2018).

 

Foreign trade data for the First half of 2016

Other news from Assocomaplast comprise the development of ISTAT foreign trade data for the sector. Data corresponding to the first half of 2016 were compared with those for the same period in 2015.

The data show imports at nearly 390 million euros, with a new peak (+9.7%) deriving from steady growth in April-June after a negative first quarter.

This would seem to reaffirm the signs of recovery in the domestic market that had shown up on the radar last year.

The trend in exports this year, on the other hand, was much less impressive: excluding the data confined exclusively to the month of January, which were not particularly significant, the bottom of the trough was seen precisely last June at -2.3%, following months of foreign sales dropping by -0.5% to -1.0%. The result is a weakening in the positive trade balance, which did not reach one billion euros.

“Regarding the key geographical macro-areas for sales abroad – which are again the strong point for the sector – particular increases are seen in sales to the NAFTA countries,” underscores Assocomaplast President, Alessandro Grassi. “This confirms the influence now assumed by this group on the balance of Italian foreign trade for the sector. Specifically, there is a strong increase in exports to Mexico, thanks to the combined effect of the favourable dynamics of the Mexican economy and the driving force of American businesses with operations in Mexico.”

Asia is also a bright spot, thanks to increased sales in the Far East – China, India, South Korea and Vietnam – and, as regards the Middle East, to the much awaited recovery of sales in Iran.

Breaking things down by machinery/equipment type and limiting the analysis to the categories having the greatest weight on the total while ignoring the more heterogeneous ones, the biggest increase was seen in the importation of moulds, mainly from Germany. An increase was also observed for injection-moulding machines, which were primarily purchased, and in greater numbers than in the previous year, from Austrian and German manufacturers.

Germany, China and Austria, in that order, are once again the main suppliers of technology to Italian processors; while European suppliers have consolidated their positions with double-digit increases, China recorded a limited +2%.

As regards exports, some of the major technologies show positive trends:

The ISTAT data are confirmed also by the recent Assocomaplast sentiment survey of a sample of processors, who report recovery in domestic and slowdown in foreign demand, and among its members, who show a trend toward stability in orders, especially from foreign markets, a situation that is expected to continue to the end of the current year.

In parallel, Assocomaplast observed that competing German manufacturers closed out the first half of 2016 with substantial stability in imports and exports, recording positive variations on the order of tenths of percent.

“In effect,” continues Grassi, “for years various Italian and German manufacturers have been recording a slowdown in orders in the months leading up to K, the principal world event for the sector, taking place in Düsseldorf from the 19th to the 26th of October 2016. Interested buyers probably prefer to get an idea of the new technologies exhibited at the fair before planning and committing to their investments.”

Source: Assocomaplast