Arburg hit record sales in 2016

LOSSBURG, Germany—Arburg GmbH & Co. has released a provisional 2016 sales figure of approximately $677.4 million, a record level for the third year running, according to Michael Hehl, managing partner of the family-owned German injection molding machinery group.

Final figures were not yet available, Hehl said at a press briefing March 14 on the eve of the annual Arburg Technology Days open house at the group's production facility in Lossburg. The figure includes Arburg's worldwide subsidiaries, is 8.6 percent higher than the figure given by Hehl for 2015 at the 2016 Technology Days event, itself up 5.8 percent over 2014.

Sales director Gerhard Boehm said the present order intake level is "at a very good level, similar to 2015," when it had grown 16 percent over 2014. Sales in Mexico and the U.S. were "excellent" in 2016, Boehm said, and that sales position has continued under the new U.S. administration.

Incoming orders for electric drive machines, which include hybrid models and the Golden Electric launched one year earlier, rose 14 percent in 2016. In terms of the share of overall sales, electric machines increased from 22 percent in 2015 to 27 percent in 2016, within which hybrid models rose 2 percent to reach a 16 percent share.

The Golden Electric machine already accounts for around 15 percent of Arburg's electric machine sales. Böhm said the Golden Electric has been very well received and is achieving good progress in Southeast Asia, as intended and expected, becoming a means for Arburg to compete better in the region against Japanese standard electric-drive machines that are popular there.

The share of sales for hydraulic machines dropped from 65 percent to 57 percent in 2016. This is not surprising against a background of increasing electric machine sales, and also because there had been exceptionally strong 2015 hydraulic growth due to some large orders from regular customers.

Sales in turnkey production systems accounted for a 17 percent share, up by 2 percentage points.

Arburg considers machine with clamping forces of 250 metric tons and above as "large" machines, and Hehl announced that the share of turnover in these larger machines rose from 21 percent to 24 percent in 2016.

"This proves that we have taken the right path by extending our clamping force to 650 (metric) tons," he said, referring to the Allrounder 1120H machine launched at K 2016, which has been confirmed by positive customer feedback.

Gaub added that Arburg has supplied three to four "O-series" Allrounder 1120H machines to customers located "not too far from Arburg," to assist in the machine's further development. Full commercial availability should start in Q1 2018, "after showing the machine at Fakuma 2017 [in October]", he said.

Arburg's new Gestica control system, operated by gestures as with smart phones and tablets, will be introduced in stages over the next three years on various Arburg molding machines and models, Gaub said.

Gestica was first introduced on the Arburg Plastic Freeformer (APF) additive manufacturing machines, with the A1120 H being the first Arburg injection molding machine to use a Gestica, replacing the well-established Selogica system.

Gaub advised however that Gestica has really been conceived for use on high performance machines, "so it is an open question whether relatively standard Golden Electric machines need something so sophisticated." High-tech multi-component machines need Gestica more, Gaub said. But Selogica will continue for quite some time, as it will take a long time to substitute it, and "customers have to decide how long they want Selogica."

Boehm was not prepared to reveal how many APF machines have been supplied since their launch at K 2013, simply saying "there is a sufficient quantity in the market, with a lot in use for prototyping, and medical applications becoming increasingly interesting." Gaub added "some large customers have a strategy over a number of years to introduce the APF for processes where injection molding is not possible, as well as for product individualization."

Following a 6.1 percent increase in 2015, the number of Arburg employees grew a further 5 percent to 2,700 in 2016, including 160 apprentices and student trainees. Although the number remained static at 2,200 at the Lossburg headquarters, Arburg has nevertheless added a 500-place multi-story staff parking lot at the site.

Investment in Lossburg in 2016 amounted to $20.7 million, which Boehm said is a typical annual amount for Arburg. It covers production and logistics, but excludes the cost of the parking structure, Hehl pointed out.

Work is due to start soon on a new 13,700-square-meter floor space, multi-story building for customer training and seminars. Hehl said this has been designed with similar architectural features as the customer center. It should be ready for use within two to three years.