China remains a global plastics industry driver
China remains a global plastics industry driver
For all the challenges in China's manufacturing sector, from slowing global growth hurting exports to rising production costs within the country, it remains the world's largest market for plastics and a significant driver for industry growth.China, for example, will account for more than half of the total global increase in demand for polyethylene, the workhorse of polymer markets, through 2021, according to a January study from consulting firm IHS Markit.The economic slowdown has had an impact, of course: Germany, the largest foreign supplier of plastics and rubber machinery to China, saw its exports drop 4% in 2016, on top of a 19% drop in 2015.But China remains Germany's second-largest plastics machinery export market, after the United States, and the upgrading going on within the country's manufacturers and plastics industry has foreign suppliers scouting for opportunities.German machinery maker KraussMaffei Group, for example, said it's "in a position" for double-digit annual sales growth in the country for several years, said Xiaojun Cui, CEO of KraussMaffei China.
For all the challenges in China's manufacturing sector, from slowing global growth hurting exports to rising production costs within the country, it remains the world's largest market for plastics and a significant driver for industry growth.China, for example, will account for more than half of the total global increase in demand for polyethylene, the workhorse of polymer markets, through 2021, according to a January study from consulting firm IHS Markit.The economic slowdown has had an impact, of course: Germany, the largest foreign supplier of plastics and rubber machinery to China, saw its exports drop 4% in 2016, on top of a 19% drop in 2015.But China remains Germany's second-largest plastics machinery export market, after the United States, and the upgrading going on within the country's manufacturers and plastics industry has foreign suppliers scouting for opportunities.German machinery maker KraussMaffei Group, for example, said it's "in a position" for double-digit annual sales growth in the country for several years, said Xiaojun Cui, CEO of KraussMaffei China.
KM was bought last year by Beijing-based China National Chemical Corp., and KM executives at Chinaplas said being part of ChemChina gives them access to state-owned companies that would have been harder to sell to before.As well, demands for higher quality in the country create opportunities for the German supplier, Cui said."The rising middle class in China is asking for more sophisticated, good quality products [and] this requires better machines to produce," Cui said. "Companies are competing on productivity. So, the introduction of the right automation solution can help our customers achieve better results."Germany's VDMA plastics machinery trade group put on its second annual conference on Industry 4.0 technologies for the Chinese market at Chinaplas, held May 16-19 in Guangzhou.Toni Bernards, CEO for German extrusion equipment maker Battenfeld-Cincinnati Group's operations in China, said Chinese firms are interested in how Industry 4.0 technology can improve their productivity, but they are less clear on specific benefits than companies in Europe or North America."[Chinese companies] want to have it, but I believe at the moment they are not yet clear what is all behind industry 4.0," he said.
China's government-led program for industrial upgrading, called "Made in China 2025," calls for tripling the use of industrial robots to 150 per 10,000 workers by 2020, from 49 now.
