Injection Moulding
VDMA, the plastics and rubber association, maintains that India is still one of the top global markets for German plastic and rubber machinery sales despite a fall in demand.
Recent figures from the organisation show exports of plastics and rubber machinery to India peaked in 2011, rising to €175.1 million (£133.4 million) in a 24.1 per cent year-on-year increase. However, what goes up must inevitably come down and in 2012 exports fell by 32.8 per cent on the previous year, dipping by a further 25.9 per cent to just €87.1 million in 2013.
German exports to India during the 10 months between January and October 2014 amounted to just €56.2 million which is a decrease of 15.3 per cent compared to the same timeframe the year before.
This is not just an issue facing Germany. India's top ten plastics and rubber machinery-manufacturing regions (including Germany) have suffered similarly, with the exception being Korea, which experienced a 0.9 per cent rise in demand year-on-year in 2013. Indeed global exports of plastics and rubber machinery to India dropped from €645.1 million in 2012 to €483.4 million, resulting in a dip of 25.1 per cent, according to VDMA figures.
China remains the number one most important supplier of plastic and rubber processing systems to India with a share of 25.8 per cent of total exports, with Germany coming in second at 18 per cent, Japan third at 10.3 per cent, Taiwan fourth at 9.2 per cent and finally Italy at 5.6 per cent.
All these countries will be represented at PlastIndia 2015 next month (February 5th-10th), but it appears the heat is on for machine manufacturers to hold onto their Indian market share this year.
VDMA