Germany’s plastics processors sector performed better than many other sector in 2008, the industry association Gesamtverband Kunststoffverarbeitende Industrie (GKV, Bad Homburg / Germany; www.gkv.de), said at its annual press conference in Frankfurt. Despite the worldwide economic nose dive in the fourth quarter, converters were posted a full-year sales increase of 2% against 2007 to EUR 54m. Production volume was flat at 12.9m t. However, due to the trend to lighter weight, this means that more plastic products actually were manufactured, association president Reinhard Proske pointed out.

The packaging segment turned in the strongest economic performance in 2008. Thanks essentially to the good economy for food packaging, sales rose 6% year-on-year to EUR 13.1 bn and sales volume by 3% to 4.1m t. Sales of plastic products to the construction industry picked up by 2.5% to EUR 11.4 bn, but production volumes remained flat at 3.2m. Turnover in plastic goods for consumer, household, medical, sports and leisure applications was up nearly 2% to EUR 16.4 bn, while volumes stagnated at 3.1m.

In the negative column, technical products for the automotive, E&E and machinery manufacture applications saw a sales decline of 3.5% to EUR 12.3m, coupled with a 3% decrease in volumes to 2.5m t. As might have been expected, business with the automotive industry was extremely weak in the fourth quarter, with sales in December down 20% against the 2007 month. With cost pressure exerted by OEMs in recent years already having eroded margins, the association fears the current short time working could methamorphise into redundancies.

GKV’s traditional early year survey of members indicates a troubled outlook for 2009. Around 58% of companies responding said they expect declining sales this year, according to association’s managing director, Michael Rathje. He said industry players have orders in hand for only 6.5 weeks, compared with 7.8 to 7.9 weeks on average. Capacity utilisation rates currently are around 73%, down from 82.2% a year ago. However, despite the gathering dark clouds, Proske said he believes German plastics converters will successfully emerge from the crisis, due to their “extraordinary innovative potential.”