Market for injection molding equipment to remain soft: Husky

There are few signs that the world’s market for injection molding equipment will turn around this year, Husky Injection Molding Systems warned today, releasing its latest quarterly results.

In fact, the company expects 2004 sales to be lower than those posted last year.

It was a good-news-bad-news economic report from the industry giant. Husky’s orders reached a record high in the second quarter of this year, marking a three per cent increase over the same period in 2003. However, net income was still lower because of such factors as a strong Canadian dollar.

A nine per cent increase in year-to-date orders was all generated in non-PET markets, and much of the increase was linked to a wide range of Hylectric machine orders, which were up 75 per cent. PET orders, however, experienced a marginal decline, although that was offset by an increased demand in Eastern Europe.

Sales for the second quarter dropped four per cent to US $177.9 million, primarily because of a lower opening backlog level.

North American sales dropped 26 per cent, reflecting lower shipments in PET and packaging markets. Still, sales in Europe grew 45 per cent, with about half the increase linked to favorable exchange rates, and strong shipments linked to PET and packaging applications.

China is seen as another promising region, with Husky announcing plans to expand its new Shanghai Technical Center in fiscal 2005, to add to the local capacity to build machines, molds and hot runners.