Plastics News Show Daily - April 4, 2012 - (Page 36)

36 PLASTICS NEWS, April 4, 2012 German machinery exports grow in East Asia EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS REPORT Demand for German machinery from China’s plastics and rubber processors rose to a record value of 766.4 million euros ($1.01 billion) in 2011, 30.5 percent higher than the 2010 figure. “That is a new record for China and at the same time the [Ger- man] industry’s highest volume of exports ever to a single country,” said Ulrich Reifenhäuser, chairman of the VDMA, the German Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association. Announcing global export figures, Frankfurt, Germany-based VDMA hailed overall growth of 25.6 percent in 2010 and 30.5 percent in 2011 which took German machinery exports to 4.32 billion euros ($5.74 billion). “As a result, two very good years for exports have now offset the slump of 2009 and the record set in 2008 has been significantly exceeded,” said Thorsten Kühmann, VDMA managing director. Exports to other East Asian countries grew even faster than to China. Deliveries to South Korea rose by 82.4 percent, ranking the country sixth among Germany’s most important markets in 2011. Orders from customers in Taiwan also showed an aboveaverage increase of 33.4 percent. Asia’s share of German exports as a whole rose to 38.4 percent. Other world regions showed stronger demand for German plastics and rubber machinery as well. Exports to the 27 European ‘Two very good years for exports [to Asia] have now offset the slump of 2009 and the record set in 2008 has been significantly exceeded.’ Thorsten Kühmann VDMA Union countries were up by 26.9 percent, with France, the main market, well ahead of Poland, Italy and Austria. Deliveries to the rest of Europe also showed above-average growth of 36.7 percent. Russia, which has recovered markedly, and Turkey remain the region’s most important customers. Exports to North America rose 30.7 percent and to Central America 48.3 percent, due chiefly to a demand surge from Mexico. At 27.4 percent, the export increase to South America lagged slightly behind the average. Other export increases were recorded in the Middle East (11.2 percent) and Southeast Asia (23 percent). Only North Africa recorded a drop in sales (down 7.5 percent), a result of the Arab Spring, says VDMA. The decline in deliveries to the largest customer, Egypt, played a particular part in this. VDMA also noted fast growth in deliveries by foreign manufacturers of plastics and rubber machinery to customers in Germany. Imports rose by 49.5 percent to 946 million euros ($1.25 billion), with the main supplier countries being Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Medical molder Biomerics expands By Frank Antosiewicz PLASTICS NEWS CORRESPONDENT Biomerics LLC recently opened a 10,000-square-foot addition that includes an ISO Class 8 clean room. It also spent $1.5 million on new machinery. The company doubled its clean room space, according to Troy Mohr, Biomerics’ vice president of business development, and boosted the size of its overall facility to 85,000 square feet. “We have the ability to have material polymerization and compounding in one room with full injection molding and assembly in the second room,” Mohr said in a telephone interview. He said Biomerics also invested in machinery, including two new presses for the clean room. There is also a Motan automated material handling system in place, as well as new medical and pharma compounding lines. The expansion was managed by Entelen LLC, a Salt Lake City-based design and construction company that specializes in clean manufacturing facilities. Biomerics started in 1994 as Utah Plastics Group, but has since added the new name and in the last three years has focused more on the medical device and life science area. It is able to make biomedical materials and do compounding, and later do injection molding or extrusion, as well as assembly. Last year, the company launched a new polyimide medical tubing and coated wire production line to produce components that are used in medical devices such as cardiovascular catheters and angioplasty stent delivery devices. Biomerics works a great deal with original equipment manufacturers as a contract manufacturer. Overall, it has 60 employees, having added 15 jobs in the last quarter. The company plans to hire up to 20 more in the coming year. Biomerics plans a ribbon cutting on March 23. The company said a big reason for the expansion is Utah’s focus on life sciences, which includes the recent passage of the state’s Technology and Life Sciences Economic Development Act.  http://chemtrend.com http://www.process-control.com http://www.process-control.com http://chaseplastics.com http://chaseplastics.com

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Plastics News Show Daily - April 4, 2012

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