On June 26th, the Italian Rubber and Plastics Processing Machinery Association released a data indicating that the Italian plastics and rubber market is recovering.

At the press conference yesterday, the Italian Rubber and Plastics Association said that plastic machinery imports in the first quarter of 2018 rose by 26% year-on-year.

Although import growth is a sign of continued recovery in the domestic market, the Italian Rubber and Plastics Processing Machinery Association has played down the impact of the slowdown in exports, saying it should not be surprising.

The Italian Rubber and Plastics Processing Machinery Association pointed out: "After the first two months of continuous growth, the March slowdown was almost unexpected, which also indicates that the members of the association will report fewer orders in the final weeks of the period."

Although this error ended with almost uninterrupted positive development – in addition to the brief decline in 2013, Amaplast believes it is too early to talk about the recession.

However, the association did not rule out the possibility of a negative phase, saying that given the inherent cyclicality of the economy, it would be completely normal.

The semi-annual survey released by the Italian Rubber and Plastics Processing Machinery Association in mid-June also showed that more than half of the members (51%) expect their turnover to be stable this year, while 38% expect to improve.

On the order side, 42% predicted stable, while 41% expected growth.

Last year, the Italian rubber and plastics machinery industry announced a record performance, compared with 2016, a year-on-year increase of 10%, reaching 4.67 billion euros.

This year's machinery exports reached 3.3 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 12%.

The Italian domestic market also grew by 10% to 2.3 billion euros, while machinery imports increased by 14% to 970 million euros.