MOSCOW—Sales of plastics and rubber machinery to Russia have continued to contract sharply this year, figures issued by German industry association the VDMA indicate.
In a release ahead of the Interplastica expo next month in Moscow, VDMA put German polymer-machinery exports to Russia from January to September at $57.3 million. This was 32.9 percent lower than in the same period in 2015.
With a market share of 23.6 percent, Germany is second largest supplier of plastics and rubber machines to Russia, behind Lithuania (26.1 percent) and ahead of China (12.6 percent), and Italy (9.2 percent).
This year's German decline follows a 13.7 percent year-on-year fall in worldwide exports of plastics and rubber machines to Russia in 2015, to $606.2 million.
The 2014-15 figures include declines in exports from: Italy (-37.1 percent), Austria (-30 percent), Turkey (-19.4 percent), Germany (-14.7 percent), Lithuania (-12.3 percent) and China (-6.1 percent).
VDMA noted increased machinery exports to Russia in 2015 from: Japan (+259.6 percent), Finland (171.9 percent), Netherlands (86.2 percent) and Taiwan (20.1 percent), though all from small 2014 base-figures.