Extrusion 5-2018

20 Branche Intern Extrusion 5/2018 tors. Significant and constant growth in purchases abroad, suggesting sustained recovery in the domestic market, as al- ready seen in the impressive positive re- sults at year-end 2017. As underscored by Amaplast President Alessandro Grassi at the Members Assembly on 14 June in Linz, Austria, “It is a fact that the pro- pensity to invest among Italian conver- ters is back on a positive growth trend and we can only be happy about this.” The slowdown in exports should not come as a surprise and may be con- n The Statistical Studies Centre of Ama- plast (Italian trade association, member of CONFINDUSTRIA, bringing together about 170 manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery, equipment and moulds) has analysed foreign trade data published by ISTAT for the first quarter of 2018. A comparison with the same period in 2017 reveals growth of 26% in imports and a contraction of approximately one percentage point in exports. This pro- vides indications of two important fac- Italian Manufacturers of Plastics and Rubber Processing Machinery sidered to fall within a normal range of variation. After the first two months of continued positive growth, the slow- down in March was almost to be expec- ted, heralded also by decreases in orders as reported by members in the last weeks of the period. It is clearly premature to be talking about a decline, even though we must ack- nowledge that the sector has witnessed continuous positive growth for at least seven or eight years (with the exception of a brief dip in 2013) and thus, given ➠ Adsale Exhibition Services Limited www.ChinaplasOnline.com year, Adsale also proactively promotes China’s enterprises and industry to the international market by organizing Chi- na pavilion in various shows overseas. After successfully organizing a China pa- vilion for Plastindia in February 2018, Adsale once again led Chinese enterpri- ses to the international market at the end of May. As the agent of PLAST 2018 for China and Hong Kong region, Adsale organized the largest ever China Pavilion in PLAST 2018. 80 Chinese enterprises were invited to participate and the area of the pavilion reached 1,610 sqm. Com- pared to the last edition of PLAST in 2015, the number of Chinese exhibitors increased by 57% and the area increased by 76%. Ada Leung, General Manager of Adsale Exhibition Services, expresses her plea- n In recent years, economic and trade cooperation between China and Italy has grown deeper. According to the China Plastics Machinery Industry Association, plastics machinery exported to Europe from mainland China has been growing both in numbers and in value since 2015. In 2015, 44,681 units of Chinese plastics machinery valued at US$203.12 million were exported to Europe. In 2016, the export volume increased to 127,399 units, and the value increased to US$226.11 million. In 2017, the num- bers further climbed to 288,217 units, amounting to US$315.05 million. The number and value of China's import of plastics machinery from Europe also showed a general uptrend. In 2015, Chi- na imported 2,062 units of machines from Europe with a total value of US$602.68 million. In 2016 and 2017, the numbers of plastics machinery im- ported were 3,058 and 2,588 units res- pectively, and the values were respective- ly US$551.51 million and US$639.72 million. Imports from Italy alone has been going in a similar direction – from 233 units in 2015 at US$73.52 million to 331 units at US$79.18 million in 2017. These figures are demonstrative of the deepening in economic and trade co- operation between China and Europe. Adsale Exhibition Services is the organi- zer of CHINAPLAS. Apart from organiz- ing about 20 exhibitions in China every Largest ever China Pavilion at PLAST 2018 sure in seeing the close cooperation among the plastics industries in China, Italy, and other parts of Europe. She ex- plains that cooperation between CHINA- PLAS and PLAST has been long establis- hed. AMAPLAST, the organizer of PLAST, is also the organizer of the CHINAPLAS Italian Pavilion. At CHINAPLAS, the size of the Italian Pavilion has ranked the se- cond among the European pavilions for many years, only after the German Pavil- ion. It is hoped that Adsale and AMA- PLAST, can strengthen the bond and re- lationship, further promoting trade deve- lopment of the Chinese and Italian plas- tics industry.