At the general assembly on 15 June 2018 in Linz, the representatives of the member firms of Euromap elected Presidency and General Secretary for the period 2018 to 2021: Luciano Anceschi (right, in the picture), Tria, Cologno Monzese (President); Michael Baumeister (left), Brückner Maschinenbau, Siegsdorf (Vice President); Thorsten Kühmann (centre), VDMA, Frankfurt (Secretary General).

“The close collaboration on a European level is extremely important for the manufacturers of plastics and rubber machinery when it comes to central topics like Industry 4.0 or Circular Economy”, Luciano Anceschi, newly elected Euromap-president, is convinced. The atmosphere amongst the European plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers, which are united under the European umbrella organisation Euromap, is excellent. At the general assembly in Linz, they already celebrated the next record year. Since 2009, the production of European plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers has risen to an estimated 15.3 billion euros, which equals an increase of 99 per cent within the last eight years. In 2017, Euromap’s production saw an above average increase of seven per cent.

There is no end of the growth in sight. Due to full order books, EUROMAP expects a growth rate of two per cent for European plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers. The unusually long boom phase does have its drawbacks, however. The delivery times of machine manufacturers as well as of suppliers are tremendous. Moreover, some companies have trouble to find appropriate skilled workers. A slow-down of the economic growth, therefore, is becoming increasingly likely.

The worldwide production of plastics and rubber machinery has increased by four per cent. Especially Chinese competitors gained in strength. In 2017 they already produced machinery and plants worth 11.1 billion euros, which is 180 percentage points more than in year 2009.