Krauss-Maffei: Extrusion business helps to boost sales
Krauss-Maffei said that a strong extrusion business will see its 2006 year end sales figures reach around €560m, up by 10% on last year’s result.
Chief executive Josef Märtl said this is the fifth year-on-year gain the company has recorded, an achievement underpinned by its strong international business and high technology systems sales.
While the overall demand for injection moulding machines has seen steady growth, Märtl said the optical disc market has been disappointing. “The optical disc market is weak right now and it is getting weaker,” he said.
“A new technology is coming – the memory chip. The optical disc was the data carrier of the 1990s. It will still be a business for the future but not a big business. We are not investing anymore in this sector.”
In geographical terms, Western and Eastern Europe along with North and South America, showed steady demand growth. But in Asia and China, injection moulding machine market growth slowed.
In the 2007 fiscal year, Krauss-Maffei’s extrusion division will follow the production reorganisation already undertaken in injection moulding machines and change to synchronized flow assembly for all extruders, from standard to application-specific machines.