Sales up 14% in 2010 / Almost back at pre-crisis levels / Renaissance for manufacturers of technical parts / Confidence for 2011 / Plastics processing association warns that costs are assuming threatening proportions

摘要

After the previous year's crisis, the plastics processing industry rose "like a phoenix from the ashes" in 2010. Speaking at the annual press conference of the German plastics processing industry association Gesamtverband Kunststoffverarbei-tende Industrie (GKV, Bad Homburg / Germany; www.gkv. de), held in Frankfurt on Ash Wednesday, association president Bernd-Otto Kruse posed the rhetorical question: "Who would have thought the recovery would set in so quickly again after the crash of the global economy?" According to provisional figures, German plastics converters grew sales by 14% year-on-year in 2010 to EUR SI.3 bn. This means the deep crater caused by the 2009 crisis has almost been smoothed out. GKV expects the industry to eliminate the final remaining divots before the end of the year and to "at least" match the pre-crisis record level of EUR 52.3 bn. Climbing 7% to 12.2m t, the volume of plastics processed also moved within touching distance of the 2008 mark of 12.8m t.