Machinery manufacturers see growth in Western Europe

14 September 2006

Surprise growth in Western Europe has fuelled strong performance from European machinery manufacturers, says the industry association EUROMAP. A survey has indicated that further improvement has been witnessed in the €16 billion European Plastics and Rubber Machinery Manufacturing Industry in the first half of 2006, fuelled by a surprise upsurge in Western European orders.

Overall, some 51% of respondents to the latest EUROMAP Trends Survey reported turnover levels as “good” (double that for the second half of 2005). Western Europe was the principal contributor to improvement, with 42% of companies reporting improvement in “new orders” from this territory – significantly better than expectations for the region at the start of the year. Eastern Europe showed similar growth levels, very much in line with expectation. China showed the weakest improvement across the global regions with just 20% of respondents reporting improvement in this region. Asia was the only market that significantly underperformed against expectation with just 18% seeing an improvement versus the 26% anticipated. 

According to EUROMAP, looking forward to the second half of 2006, few companies expect deterioration in the present situation. Eastern Europe and North America are the most positively viewed markets with Western Europe closely following. Modest improvement is predicted for China