Haitian International Holdings Ltd., the world's largest supplier of plastics injection molding machinery, increased sales by 6 percent in 2023 despite inflation, high interest rates and geopolitical conflicts.
The Ningbo, China-based machine builder saw sales climb to $1.8 billion (RMB 13.07 billion) with domestic sales remaining flat at $1.1 billion (RMB 7.92 billion) and overseas sales up by 17.3 percent to $710 million (RMB 5.15 billion) compared with 2022.
Profit was up 7.2 percent to about $582 million (RMB 4.2 billion) versus 2022.
New investment demands in regions outside China as well as supply chain changes and lower raw material costs contributed to Haitian's sales growth, according to the company's filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange about its annual financial results.
"Against the backdrop of the weaker-than-expected recovery of domestic downstream demand and the structural change in the global industrial chain, the company's continuous investment and deployment in domestic and overseas [markets] over the years yielded key effects in achieving growth against the odds, resulting in a continued climb in global market share," the filing says.
The lower raw material prices in 2023 were a big factor in gross profit margin reaching 32.1 percent for the full year compared to 31.8 percent in 2022, the filing also says.
In August, Haitian launched its fifth generation of Mars, Jupiter and Venus series injection molding machines and they have been well received for their high efficiency, energy savings, intelligence and integration features.
"Among which, the fifth-generation Mars and Jupiter series are proved to achieve energy saving of 20-40 percent and achieve significant savings in cooling water. Hence, we recorded a surge in the number of orders," the filing says.
In 2024, Haitian will continue implementing its overseas strategy and accelerating its expansion to drive more sales abroad. A new factory will begin operations this year in Chennai, India, while one under construction in Serbia should be open in 2025.
In the meantime, construction of Haitian's headquarters in South China is substantially completed and some of its factories have begun operations.
The machine builder had it best sales year in 2021, when injection press sales climbed 35.7 percent compared to the previous year and set a record of $2.5 billion (16 billion RMB).
Haitian and its U.S. distribution partner, Absolute Haitian Corp., will be at Booth W943 at NPE2024 in Orlando, Fla., May 6-10.