Italian polymer machinery makers 'must adapt to market challenges'

Assago, Italy – Despite forecasting a record year of Italy's plastics & rubber processing equipment makers in 2023 (ERJ report), industry association Amaplast foresees more challenging times ahead.

While 2023 "reaffirmed" the capacity of the industry to respond to the post-pandemic rebound, Amaplast said issues such as materials costs, energy prices, slowing global economies and inflation now threaten demand.

“While some commodity prices have returned to relatively acceptable levels, there remains an underlying uncertainty that hampers investment planning by firms,” the association commented.

Indeed, according to Amaplast, investment planning is "already falling back this year" and expected to “come to a standstill" in 2024.

To address the emerging challenges, Amaplast president Massimo Margaglione said it is "increasingly important for companies to implement digital development plans.”

Such plans, advised Margaglione, should be ambitious: targeting models that “govern the future of the entire industrial machinery sector and revolutionise company organisation, products, and services."

Digitalisation, he continued, is now coupled with 'servitisation', which optimises relations between industrial technology suppliers, machinery manufacturers, and end users.

Another important development area is generative artificial intelligence, which said Margaglione offers “application potentials that have yet to be fully grasped."