It is a future that Stech is restrained yet positive about. "In the current difficult economic situation, the market for the plastics industry has noticeably weakened. We look to the future realistically, but also with optimism. Basically, we have a very strong shareholder who has invested roughly $216 million (€200 million) into the new KraussMaffei plant landscape over the past three years," Stech said.
"The investments in Germany illustrate that Sinochem is pursuing a very sustainable plan and will continue to be a strong partner for us.
"Businesswise, our core strength are big, customized machines and turnkey solutions, which we produce in Parsdorf for the whole world, using our German know-how. Various projects are ongoing within the corporation to bolster and improve its financial results.
"Concretely, what this means is that we are working to streamline the product portfolio as well as our footprint, realigning this with our current needs and within our current possibilities," Stech said.
"We are also engaged in a number of projects that are aimed at lowering costs and improving efficiency. It is a restructuring process and optimization operation," he said.
There are still industries that continue to produce at a good level with almost no crisis, he added.
"The best example is aviation. Here, we have recently implemented complete systems for future-oriented structural lightweight components with the NIAR institute and Fiber Dynamics in the USA," he said.
Stech is not convinced that 2025 will bring back the good times. For stock market reasons, he said, KraussMaffei is not able to provide a financial forecast.
However: "We anticipate potential for the USA, China and Asia. In Europe, we still see a certain reluctance, so we assume that the market will not fully recover by 2025. What we do find encouraging, though, is that there is definitely demand for special technologies, an area in which KraussMaffei offers innovative solutions."
He sees the sustainable use of resources and cost-efficient production as the driving trends in today's plastics industry. With the construction of customized machines and systems, especially for high clamping force ranges of more than 10,000 kN as a core competence, KraussMaffei supports these trends, not only with its GX and MX series injection molding machines complete with automation but also with innovative processes—such as DCIM (direct compounding injection molding), sandwich technology and FiberForm—which help customers to produce high-quality components while reducing their material and energy costs, he said.
On the other hand, the company is also investing in the development of smaller machines as well as full-electric machines.
"It is, of course, especially the smaller-sized hydraulic machines that can be replaced by electric ones. And that is an increasing market. So, we want to go with the electrification trend wherever possible. Right now, however, it makes no sense right now to electrify the very big hydraulic machines."
He emphasized that KraussMaffei is not a manufacturer of machine series. "We are solution builder for the specific demands of our customer base. We don't just focus on building the best machines but also on the best technology to add to the machine to create the desired solution."