The German plastics packaging industry still regards its economic situation as positive, reports the country's packaging producers' association Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (IK, Bad Homburg; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de), poiting out that 43% of its members said in the quarterly survey that they considered their current situation to be good, while 52% thought it satisfactory. Nevertheless, the companies questioned anticipate that sales will decline slightly in Q3 – to -1.1 points compared with +7.2 points in the previous quarter. The IK economic trend forecast is thus considerably more positive than the evaluation of the ifo business climate index published by Germany's Ifo Institute for Economic Research (Munich; www.cesifo-group.de).

The plastics packaging industry views the development of exports in Q3 rather more critically. Here, IK reports, the figure has dropped by nearly 30 points. The association sees this as confirmation of the gradual worsening of the economic situation in numerous EU countries, as the euro crisis increasingly impacts medium-sized businesses in Germany.

Against this backdrop, the renewed avalanche in electricity costs through the feed-in electricity (EEG) surcharge will become an additional risk for packaging manufacturers. Experts predict a rise from 3.59 cents to 5 cents in 2013, which would be an increase of 40% within a year. In the Bundestag, the opposition is calling for an even higher levy on industry in favour of private consumers. Ulf Kelterborn, IK general manager, fears not only that this will put jobs and investments at risk, but also that it will trigger an increasing migration of industrial companies to countries with much lower electricity prices.