By Liz White, UT staff
Munich, Germany-In its Reaction Process Machinery Division, Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftechnik saw a 6.1 percent gain in orders in the first half of 2005/6 to Euro 48.5 million. This figure includes the first orders for the group's Tooling Technologies segment, said the Munich-based machinery supplier.
This tooling and trimming operation, conceived last year, has now been completed and two centres commissioned, at Georgsmarienhütte and Viersen, the group announced 10 May, at a press conference during the group's two-day Summer Forum for customers.
"We felt we had to offer complete solutions," as a strong independent supplier, explained Frank Peters, head of sales and marketing for reaction process equipment at Krauss-Maffei, in an interview at the forum. The two new units employ a total of about 100 people, all with extensive expertise and experience in the sector, he commented.
The tooling and trimming operations, in production since April 2006, fulfil Krauss-Maffei's aim to be a total systems supplier: "It was always our aim to be a solution provider," for customers in the polyurethanes sector, Peters commented.
Customer acceptance has been good and the first orders are already on our books," said Krauss-Maffei chairman Josef Martl, speaking during the press conference.
At Georgsmarienhütte, near Osnabrück, Krauss-Maffei specialises in moulds for foam parts, while Viersen focusses on making presses, punches and flexible cutting systems for trimming and finishing PU parts.
Total orders for Krauss-Maffei, which also makes plastics extrusion and injection-moulding equipment, were up nearly 10 percent over the same period of 2004/5, at Euro 305.6 million. This strong order growth was driven by high technology applications," said Martl.
Despite this good order growth, sales were slightly down on the same period last year, at Euro 266.5 million, but Martl attributed this to the invoicing of several large orders during the first half of the last fiscal year. The Krauss-Maffei chairman said he was confident that orders for the year ending 30 Sept 2006 would be above those of the previous fiscal year.
Expanding international business continues to continues to be the mainstay of Krauss-Maffei's success," commented Martl, with orders outside Germany up by Euro 22.5 million versus the same half year of fiscal 2004/5. This raised exports to 75.5 percent of group business, a rise of 1.2 percent.
Martl highlighted markets for plastics machinery in eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey as expanding rapidly, with Switzerland, the Americas and Australia also contributing to group growth.
Krauss Maffei's consolidated sales for the year 2004/5 were Euro 551.1 million.
The picture shows Frank Peters during the sunny Krauss-Maffei summer forum. "
