In summer last year the manufacturers of tin plate packaging and closures still faced drastic rises in the price of supply materials. Then the December motto ran: feedstock prices for sheet steel packaging no longer follow spot market prices. The result is great insecurity amongst steel processing companies and their industrial buyers.
Global demand for plastics processing machinery should grow nearly 5% a year for the next four years with sales in developing countries outpacing the US, Western Europe and Japan, according to Freedonia Group.
The Dow Chemical Company announced a series of aggressive actions to accelerate its transformational strategy in light of current economic realities.
The highly specialized Swedish injection molding company, Holmgrens Plast AB in Gnosjö, equipped their machine outfit in 2008 with the fully electric Zhafir Venus series and appears to be satisfied with this decision.
With 150 million Euro, the three Engel Deutschland sites have booked their highest turnover of all ages. This actually means an increase of 70% over a period of five years.
Erema, the Austrian manufacturer of plastic recycling systems, ended its 2007/2008 fiscal year on 31 March this year, once again with record turnover figures. The figure for consolidated turnover achieved by the Erema Group, comprising Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H., Ansfelden with its subsidiaries Erema North America Inc., located in Ipswich/MA, and 3S-GmbH in Roitham, reached EUR 102.4 million for the period from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) made a net profit of SR27 billion in 2007, an increase of 33 percent from 2006. Full-year earnings per share were SR10.81 versus SR8.12 by the end of 2006, it said in a statement.
The Biesterfeld Group looks back on the most successful year in its more than 100 years company history. In 2007 the Biesterfeld Group achieved an increase in turnover over last year of 21.2 % to ? 836.5 million. The operational result (EBITDA) even increased by 28.5 % compared with the previous year to ? 34.6 million.
Gerresheimer AG has started the financial year 2008 with an outstanding first quarter. Sales grew by 18.2% compared with the prior year period to ?239.1m (2007: ?202.3m).
The German paper processing association WPV has announced at interpack 2008 that sales of paper and board packaging increased by a further 11.3% to Euro 9.66 billion in 2007.
VDMA reports that global demand for machines and equipment for the production and packaging of confectionery remained strong at the beginning of 2008. German exports rose by 44% to Euro 280 million in 2007, for example, as Richard Clemens (association director) announced at the interpack press conference in Düsseldorf / Germany.
