PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2011

BOTTLE MAKING 24 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 09/11 www.petpla.net Single stage feature part 3 Suppliers of single stage machinery The history of single stage has been controversial, remains controversial and is still the subject of market gossip and the object of fruitless complaints by some of the partici- pants. But single stage is part of PET history nevertheless, when Katashi Aoki of Nissei Plastics – maker of huge number of injection moulding machines, a company still existing today, family owned and managed by members of the family – decided in the mid-1970s to develop single stage injection stretch blow moulding machines in the Aoki Techn. Lab (R&D centre) and commercially sell them via Nissei ASB. Two companies were founded, origi- nally all on the premises of Nissei Plastics. The sons of Katashi Aoki were put in charge – Daiichi to manage Nissei ASB as Chairman and Shigeto to manage Aoki Techn. Lab. At the end of the 1970s it was decided that the companies should go their separate ways. Thereafter both companies have been rival suppliers of single stage machines. At the end of 1980s a new contender appeared on the scene of single stage, when Sipa of Italy sup- plied the very massive, large single stage PET moulding machines – with a design originally coming from Van Dorn of the US. Market data The three suppliers control the global markets up to the present day. We estimate that out of a total of 8.600 single stage systems installed Nissei ASB have supplied approx. 6,000 single stage systems, Aoki approx.1,800 systems and Sipa approx. 800 systems. Sipa systems are much larger in size, output and price compared with their Japanese counterparts. Although all three make single stage machines, there is a differ- ence in design and in market policy. The Japanese Nissei ASB and Aoki cover the world market with small machines – the majority of single stage tioned that with Automa there is a No. 4 amongst the single stage machine suppliers and maybe a potential No. 5 from China, currently unknown in Europe. Husky, who also briefly took part in the single stage market mainly on exhibitions, has withdrawn from the sector under Onnex ownership. Let us now turn to the reality of the market- place today. In the following pages we will be looking at the Big 3 Nissei ASB, Aoki as well as Sipa. We have visited the offices of Nissei ASB (Karel Keersmaekers) and Aoki Techn. Lab. (Hidenaga Naka- gawe) in Düsseldorf, Germany, as application was for small machines, most of them for pharma, cosmetics and food - , in contrast to Sipa, who concentrate on the large volume single stage machines – considerable portion has in the past gone into beverages. There is fierce competition between Nissei ASB and Aoki. Sipa – manu- facturing in Europe in the Euro region - consider themselves presently unable and unwilling to compete with small single stage machinery. It is true to state that Sipa starts where Nissei ASB or Aoki leave off.The biggest Nissei ASB is the smallest Sipa. For a complete picture it should be men-