Beijing-based China Plastics Machinery Industry Association outlined industry growth targets as well as areas of focus in its 12th five-year development report.

CPMIA expects the industry to grow at least 12 percent annually and reach 50 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion) in total sales by 2015, reported the Shanghai Securities.

In the meantime, CPMIA hopes to raise domestic machinery makers' share in the Chinese market from 72 percent to around 80 percent.

The trade group also aims to help industry players develop higher-value-added products and achieve 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in exports by 2015.

CPMIA said it would lobby for more government support to grow and upgrade the plastics machinery industry, specifically in areas including high-precision machinery, energy-efficient machinery, etc.

Earlier this week, China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin called for more efforts to push forward the development of the country's machinery industry. According to a Xinhua report, he gave a number of highlights, including:

1. Raise quality and efficiency;
2. Accelerate mergers and acquisitions to forge conglomerates;
3. Enhance the industry's ability to withstand risk;
4. Improve technological innovation and expand scientific research input;
5. Eliminate outdated production capacity;
6. Increase energy-saving and emission-reduction activities; and
7. Strengthen international competitiveness, among others.

China's plastics machinery industry is a grassroots industry, consisting of mostly privately owned companies, CPMIA official Su Dongping told the China Industry News. She said the industry has a strong leverage effect with China's plastics processing industry, which makes 1.5 trillion yuan (US$229 billion) in annual output.

In 2010, China's market demand for plastics machinery rose to 47.9 billion yuan, nearly 40 percent higher than in 2008.

CPMIA's survey shows a total of 564 plastics machinery manufacturers with 2010 sales of 5 million yuan (USD$764,059) or higher. Among them, 10 firms topped 500 million yuan (US$76.4 million) in sales. Haitian, the industry leader, recorded a historic high of 7 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) in 2010 sales.

The industry as a whole manufactured more than 300,000 units of machines last year.