VDMA cautious over 2024 outlook as new orders dip

Bonn, Germany – German engineering industry association VDMA has expressed ‘caution’ regarding the 2024 outlook for the plastics & rubber machinery segment.

VDMA's assessment is linked to a year-on-year dip in new orders: down by 13% in 2022 (price-adjusted) and by 33% in the first quarter of 2023.

This suggests "fewer orders on the books that can be processed and converted into sales in 2024,” said Thorsten Kuehmann, MD plastics & rubber machinery at VDMA.

However, the slow order development at the start of this year follows a strong 2022 performance, which saw a 10% price-adjusted increase in sales

In nominal terms the increase amounted to 18%, added a 15 June statement from the German industry association.

VDMA linked the surge in revenues for the plastics & rubber machinery industry to “numerous orders the sector was able to attract in recent years”.

The figures also indicate that supply-chain issues have "eased to some degree," the association noted.

This year, added VDMA, "currently, the order books are still reasonably full, which hints at a comparatively good sales year in 2023."

For 2024, however, VDMA said there is “not much hope that demand will pick up in the short term”, particularly as the world economy remains weak.

“The global economic climate with low growth, high inflation and correspondingly high interest rates is unsettling investors,” VDMA commented.

Against this background, VDMA said that the important tasks of decarbonisation and defossilisation of the polymer industry has become “more challenging”.

Transition to a circular economy, reducing emissions or establishing carbon-neutral production requires investment and restructuring, it pointed out.

But many companies are now facing “planning uncertainty”, particularly where issues of energy-supply and corresponding cost impacts are concerned.

As a result, VDMA said its focus will be on setting a strategic course for plastics & rubber machinery manufacturers and partners along the value-chain.

This will include efforts to attract young people into mechanical engineering and promoting circular-economy know-how of member companies in markets worldwide. 

The trade association will also be providing support to further digitalise processes across the value-chain, towards achieving CO2-neutral production.