Reflecting the economic downturn experienced by the country, German plastics and rubber machinery exports to Russia fell by almost 15% year-on-year to EUR 134m in 2015, the German association for plastics and rubber machinery VDMA Kunststoff- und Gummimaschinen (KuG, http://kug.vdma.org) reports. All considered, global plastics and rubber machinery exports to the country declined by almost 14% to EUR 570m in 2015, with the steepest fall registered by Italian suppliers, who posted year-on-year losses of 37%.

The data, released ahead of the upcoming "interplastica” (www.interplastica.de) industry fair, held in Moscow from 24-27 January 2017 (see Plasteurope.com of 29.09.2016), also show that the slide did not end in 2016. In the period from January to September this year, German exports of these goods to Russia fell by 33% year-on-year, reaching just EUR 59m, VDMA says.

The 2015 figures show that despite the decline, Germany remains the second most important supplier of plastics and rubber machinery to Russia, on the heels of Lithuania, and followed by China and Italy. The only countries that were able to lift their deliveries to the country in 2015 were Japan (up 260% year-on-year), Finland (up 172%), The Netherlands (up 86%) and Taiwan (up 20%), although each started off from a very low base in 2014.