Euromap forecasts machinery sales downturn of 10% in 2019

Dusseldorf, Germany – Global plastics and rubber machinery industry sales are projected to drop 10% this year and 5% in 2020.

That’s according to European and German plastics and rubber machinery industry trade associations, speaking at K 2019, held 16-23 Oct.

The Euromap association, an umbrella group of nine national European plastics and rubber machinery trade groups, projected that global sales for the machinery sector will drop 10% to €33.1bn this year, with a further 5% fall to €31.5bn in 2020.

Sales reached €36.8bn worldwide in 2018.

"At the bottom line, we want to say that not only will we have a challenging 2019, but 2020 will be challenging, too," said Thorsten Kühmann, secretary general of Euromap.

The group estimates that sales in the Euromap region will also drop 10% this year to €14bn and fall another 5% in 2020 to €13.3bn.

Germany and Italy will face similar declines, it estimated, with German plastics machinery sales dropping from €7.9bn in 2018 to €6.7bn next year. Italy is projected to see a drop from €2.9bn last year to €2.5bn in 2020.

Euromap President Luciano Anceschi said several factors were leading to the global slowdown in machinery sales, after a decade-long streak of growing sales: a declining auto market worldwide, the trade conflict between the United States and China, Brexit, and environmental questions around plastics.

He noted drops in exports to major markets from Europe.

Euromap projects machinery exports from the 28 European Union nations to the rest of the world will fall 7.5% this year, 6.4% to the United States and 12% to China.