PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2012

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 11 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 10/12 www.petpla.net With a helpful clarification: “With this step, the KraussMaffei Group is now well positioned to exploit the opportunities offered by the Chi- nese PET sector.” In plain English what this means is that the Netstal Service and Support Centre, opened in 2005 in the free trade area in Pudong, has been merged with the Krauss- Maffei Group offices in central Shanghai in October 2011 “to bundle the Groups strengths and expertise in a growth market”. The plan was to set up a lab and a Centre of PET Competence. Provision has been made in the plan for the installation of a demo machine and premises for education and training at the KraussMaffei Group Plant in Haiyan, approx. 1½ hours by car from Shanghai, where extruders have been manufactured locally for some years. According to the organisation chart, two divisions today exist as part of the KraussMaffei Group sales department for injection moulding machines and systems - one dealing with the classic range of KraussMaffei injection mould- ing machines (automotive and technical components in particular), the other covering the Netstal and KraussMaf- fei PET systems. Netstal products for caps and closures, medical and packaging applications, are being marketed by the divisions. Our meeting took place in Xiamen – where there are Netstal machines operating at Yinlu, and, on the following day, at SOE, where there is a vertical KraussMaffei PET- Form machine in service. Netstal population in China We estimate between 80 and 90 PET-Line preform systems (in 2006 it was 30 to 40, i.e. stocks have doubled since 2006) and approx. 10 KraussMaffei PETForm sys- tems in the Chines market. Netstal is the undisputed No. 2 in China. A similar number of 80/90 Netstal machines is esti- mated to operating in conjunction with closures applica- tions. In the past, Netstal was estimated to reckon on an annual order intake of approx. Eight PET-Line systems and orders would be booked accordingly. This was very much in line with the typically Swiss conservative attitude – cautious, serious, and prudent - which they adopt when evaluating the market. It is a risk-free approach to busi- ness. However, since October 2011 (with a new structure in place, and a more dynamic strategy in a strong growth environment), we estimate that orders for more than 30 Netstal systems have already been booked and orders for several more systems are about to be finalised. China has become the strongest foreign market for the Swiss, accounting for approx. 50% of all PET preform sys- tems currently supplied from Switzerland. One particularly remarkable feature is the ordering of several Netstal PET- Line systems by one customer (Wahaha) in January 2012. Up to 2006, Wahaha had ordered Sipa single step systems exclusively and, since 2008, had chosen Husky preform systems, also exclusively. The fact that Netstal has achieved a breakthrough into Husky territory is nothing short of astonishing. Was it the constant, patient, professional canvassing of the market by David Tso? Or did Michael Mueller roll up his sleeves and start an aggressive sales pitch to win over new customers? Has the new structure of KraussMaffei and Netstal, the commitment to an enhanced Netstal presence, gone down well in the marketplace? It was probably a mix of all these factors combined perhaps with a feeling that maybe Husky was just too dominating in the market, and the time was now ripe for another company, Netstal, to make its pres- ence felt. Only time will tell.