Italian machinery sector expects record year

The Italian plastic and rubber machinery sector is set to post 5 percent growth for 2017, with an estimated all-time high of 4.5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) worth of production, according to the Italian rubber and plastics machinery manufacturers' association Amaplast.

In a Dec. 19 statement, the association said figures by the Italian statistics center ISTAT suggested a 12 percent increase in imports of machinery and a 16 percent rise in exports of machinery year over year for January to September 2017.

Amaplast President Alessandro Grassi put down the success to “technological innovation” and offering products within the “Industry 4.0 regime.”

Over the nine-month period, some 70 percent of Italian production was exported, with most machinery types showing “good performance.”

Some of the best performing segments were thermoforming machines, with 51 percent growth, and extruders, with 19 percent growth. By contrast, mono and multifilament and machines for foamed products demonstrated a markedly weaker growth during this same period.

In terms of geography, Europe represented 61 percent of the exports, registering 20 percent growth.

Amaplast said the growth was attributable to significant increases in sales to Germany, Spain and France which posted 25 percent, 11 percent and 15 percent growth respectively.

In addition to the three traditional markets, Amaplast noted “continued recovery” in sales to Russia.  These demonstrated a healthy 109 percent growth, bringing Russia, said the association,  back within the top 10 export destinations for Italian machinery.

For the NAFTA region, exports rose 12 percent, despite a drop in Mexico's imports.

The opposite trend was seen in Asia, however,  as two principal markets in the Middle East — Iran and Saudi Arabia  — posted declines of 5 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

According to Amaplast, the “excellent” trend in the United Arab Emirates and Israel was not enough to offset the declines, leading to an overall fall of 5 percent.

Elsewhere in Asia, two major Far East markets, China and India, continued to record “negative or very weak trends,” with China posting a 11 percent decline and India showing a mere 1 percent growth.

Africa, which as a whole absorbs less than 3 percent of Italian exports of plastic and rubber processing machinery, reported a 22 percent rise in demand, mainly in the Mediterranean countries, with Algeria and Egypt in the lead.