Engel holds steady despite global economic uncertainties

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Despite a slowdown in North America amid trade uncertainty, Engel Holding GmbH expects global sales to reach around EUR1.6bn for fiscal year 2018-19, marking a 6% increase in earnings over last year, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

Global sales for the 2017-18 fiscal year ending 31 March were EUR1.51bn, up 11% from the prior year, company leadership said during an 17 Oct news conference at Fakuma.

The Austrian maker of injection moulding presses, robots and automation systems cited Europe as the biggest contributor, making up 53% of the company's sales, followed by the Americas at 24% and Asia at 22%.

"We see kind of a shift from the previous years due to the current economic situation," Christoph Steger, Engel's chief sales officer, said, citing a 2% turnover that shifted from the Americas to Asia. Continued growth in central and Eastern Europe is balancing out a slowdown in the United Kingdom, where the consequences of Britain's exit, or Brexit, from the European Union are resulting in bouts of uncertainty, the company said.

"People are a bit reluctant with investments at the moment," Steger said of a "certain reservation" the company is seeing in parts of Europe because of confusion surrounding the Brexit strategy. Germany, specifically, continues to post the highest sales. Over the last five years, Engel has increased its sales by 50% in the country, where it employs 340 people across four locations.

Revenue growth in Asia has been the biggest for the Engel Group and is continuing to grow, Steger said. Stricter quality requirements in the medical and packaging industries are leading to increased demand, with China as the strongest driver of growth in the region.

This past April, Engel said it was investing EUR10.5m into expanding capacity for its Changzhou, China-based Wintec subsidiary. The investment marked the first expansion since the machinery maker launched the Wintec brand of standardised injection presses four years ago.

Recent economic developments in North America, however, are not as encouraging, the company said. The region is below last year's level of growth for the fiscal year's second quarter. Engel did not provide any specific figures, however.

The company said the slowdown in North America is primarily due to large international conglomerates that are taking a "wait-and-see approach" in response to the latest developments in economic policy.

Recent changes, including the Sept. 30 news that Canada will join Mexico and the United States in a revised North American Free Trade Agreement — now called ? the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — in addition to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of new tariffs covering another $200 billion in Chinese imports, have been something all machinery companies "have to deal with," Steger said.

But with a "successor solution" to NAFTA on the table, Steger said Engel is "quite happy" and that many of the company's initial insecurities have been reduced.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- This is a busy time for KraussMaffei Group GmbH: the German manufacturer of injection molding machines, machines for plastics extrusion technology, and reaction process machinery is in the middle of an orders and sales boom, is implementing a new business strategy, and has just launched a new speed-to-market program for standard injection molding machines, as per Canplastics.

In the first three quarters of 2018, incoming orders for the Munich-based company amounted to 1.05 billion euros (US$1.21 billion), which is an increase of 2.5 per cent compared with the same period last year. "Sales amounted to 973 million euros (USD1.12 billion), which corresponds to an increase in sales of 15 million euros or 1.6 per cent," Dr. Frank Stieler, CEO of the KraussMaffei Group, said in a statement.

The number of employees at the company has also increased significantly. "Today, the Group employs almost 5,500 people (including apprentices) – a record number," Stieler said. “Since the end of 2016 alone, 618 new jobs have been created worldwide. This means a 13 per cent increase in the number of employees within just under two years."

Under the name “Compass”, meanwhile, the company has developed a two-pillar strategy. "In addition to classic plastics machinery construction this new strategy aims at intensifying and accelerating the development of digital services and products, as well as new business models,” Stieler said. “We established a new Digital Service Solutions business unit in July, and it’s expected to make a substantial contribution to our sales in the future. The new strategy is initially designed for a period of five years until 2023."

Finally, for its European customers, KraussMaffei Group has just initiated anew speed-to-tarket program to supplement its recently introduced machine rental program. "The new European stock machine program includes standard injection molding machines of the CX, GX and PX series, which can be delivered immediately ex stock,” Stieler said. “If the model the customer wants is not in stock, our production is designed to build one in a short period of time."

Together with its Rent-It business model, the speed-to-market program is designed to offer additional benefits, Stieler said. "It allows customers to rent the desired injection molding machine instead of buying it,” he said. “Maintenance and other services are also included in the Rent-It program."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global auto components producer Novares formally launched a EUR5.25m extension to its Zrenjanin parts plant in northern Serbia on 16 Oct increasing the factory area by a third, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

Included in the 3,000m2 addition is a new clean room with two production lines for engine components with infrared welding, automatic component assembly and leak testing sections. The clean room has a capacity to turn out one million parts per year, Novares said.

The latest investment, which will lead to the creation of 50 new jobs on site by next year, also equipped the plant with advanced technologies and robotics including five new injection moulding machines.

Guests attending the inauguration of the plant extension included Serbia’s Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, the Vojvodina province prime minister Igor Mirovic, the French ambassador to Serbia Frederic Mondoloni and Novares’s CEO Pierre Boulet.

They were joined by other Serb officials to cut the ceremonial ribbon to mark the launch of the expanded facility.

Zrenjanin plant, which is situated in Serbia’s Vojvodina province, manufactures complex moulded plastic auto components including interior and exterior car parts, body trim and engine parts.

Paris, France-based Novares took advantage of 2.2ha development space offered by the expansion of Zrenjanin Free Zone’s East business complex to extend the plant which originally opened in 2012.

Earlier, the company was quoted by Serbian media as anticipating that the growing plant would increase its workforce to as many as 280 employees by 2020.

Novares’s latest investment project was supported by Serbian government and provincial funding of €300,000 in national aid and €200,000 from Vojvodina province.

The Serb operation, originally established to allow Novares to serve automotive customers in south eastern Europe, today supplies major clients with regional assembly plants including Fiat, PSA Group, Suzuki, Jaguar Land Rover and Dacia.
mrcplas.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's Kaneka plans to shut its 279,000 mt/year PVC plant in Takasago from early November for three weeks of maintenance, a company source said Friday, as per Apic-online.

The company has three PVC plants across Japan - at Takasago, Kashima (90,000 mt/year) and Kawasaki (120,000 mt/year).

The company restarted its Kawasaki PVC plant around the end of August after maintenance that had started in June.

As MRC informed before, in June 2017, Kaneka Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Kaneka Americas Holding, and Applied Poleramic Inc. (API), a formulated advanced resin supplier in the aerospace area agreed to KAH’s acquisition of all of API’s shares and entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement on June 19, 2017. KAH shall acquire all of API’s stocks for approximately USD 15 Million and API will become a consolidated subsidiary of KAH. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States and satisfaction of other customary conditions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced an increase in its prices for all latex products sold into the Paper, Board, Carpet and Textile, and Adhesive and Construction Binder markets in the EMEA region, as per the company's press release.

The increase, effective 16 October 2018, or as contract terms permit, was EUR40 per dry metric ton for all latex products.

As MRC reported earlier, Trinseo has raised September prices for all polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile styrene copolymer (SAN) grades. Thus, effective September 1, 2018, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below increased as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by EUR85 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR85 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR60 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR60 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.4 billion in net sales in 2017, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,200 employees.
MRC