For the last 13 years, PMMDA has carried out an annual exercise to gauge trends in polymer machinery sales in the UK. Member companies are invited to share their annual sales figures confidentially and the data is then collated to demonstrate UK and Ireland totals. Those members participating receive an analysis of the figures together with a year on year comparison.
Following the collection and breakdown of figures for 2015, PMMDA Chairman Nigel Flowers commented:
‘The trend for UK injection moulding capital equipment sales remained very strong in 2015. Results of the recent 2015 Market Survey showed that the 643 machines imported represent the strongest market since 2004. Interestingly enough, if we ignore the large machine imports which distort the data, the average machine value in 2015 is lower than in 2005 when adjusted for inflation! In fact since 2010 the UK market has grown in unit numbers by a staggering 36%. To a large degree you could argue that this has been driven by the continued investment in automotive but this is only really reflected in the large machine imports (36 units over 1000 or 5.6%), the truth is that there has been significant investment across all sectors including traditional trade moulding which has taken a hit over the last few years.’
‘There is a similar story on the automation side, with 41% of machines supplied with automation last year, compared with just 32% 10 years ago. The UK compares very well with the rest of Europe as the Euromap production data shows automation over-stagnating as 20% of machines produced are equipped with automation. Again there is an argument that automotive has driven this increase but I think that we are seeing investment across the board to leverage the cost reductions and increase in productivity that automation brings.’
UK sales figures for Ancillary Equipment and Robots were also included in the survey, and showed a significant rise in trade during 2015.
Any enquiries can be directed to Nikki Williams at pmmda@pmmda.org.uk
