The European Rubber Journal (ERJ) recently released the 2019 Global Rubber Machinery Report. In 2019, the sales revenue of the world rubber machinery industry continued to decline in 2018, and the sales revenue of rubber machinery manufacturers decreased into the mainstream. At the beginning of 2020, the global economy experienced the impact of the coronavirus, and orders in the world rubber machinery industry sharply decreased, showing clear signs of a downward trend. However, the investment confidence in the rubber machinery industry is still strong, with active mergers and acquisitions, increased concentration in the industry, and a trend towards becoming a large company.

The report announced that among the top 36 global rubber machinery manufacturers in 2019, Chinese enterprises accounted for 14 positions and 2 positions in the top ten. Soft Control Group ranks third and is one of the top ranked Chinese companies; Sachi Group ranks seventh, with the previous year ranking 10th.

1. The ranking of world rubber machinery has not changed much

The 2019 World Rubber Machinery Ranking is based on the 2019 sales revenue ranking. The ranking of world rubber machinery manufacturers has not changed much this year. The top five are a replica of the previous year's ranking. H-F Company in Germany continues to be in a dominant position. Dutch VMI ranks second and Softcontrol shares rank third. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kobe Steel are ranked 4th and 5th respectively. The change only occurred in the 6th place, with Troeste/Germany ranking 6th with a growth rate of 6.9%. SACH Group/China, LWB/Germany, Desma/Germany, and Cimcorp/Finland are ranked 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th respectively.

Among the top 10, there are 4 in Germany, 2 in China, 2 in Japan, 1 in the Netherlands, and 1 in Finland. Among the top 36 rubber machinery enterprises, there are 14 in China, 8 in Germany, 2 in Japan, 3 in Italy, 1 in France, the Netherlands, Australia, Israel, Türkiye, the United States, Finland, India and Snovek respectively.

The two new entrants to the rankings are Dalian Second Rubber Machinery/China and Z-Laser Company/Germany, while the two exiting the rankings are Beijing Jingye/China and Spoolex/France.

2. The global rubber machinery industry has entered a downward trend as a whole

The sales revenue of world rubber machinery decreased by 1.02% year-on-year in 2018, and continued to decline in 2019, with a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%. According to the current order situation and the impact of the COVID-19, it is preliminarily judged that the world rubber machinery industry as a whole has entered a downward channel. 21 out of the top 36 companies have experienced a decline, while 7 out of the top 10 have experienced a decline, with sales revenue declining as the mainstream.

From a regional perspective, China's rubber machinery has seen overall growth, while rubber machinery in other regions has generally declined or remained flat. The sales revenue of rubber machinery in the world, excluding China, decreased by 3.1% year-on-year. The European region is the wind vane of the world's rubber machinery, with 15 years of growth. However, in 2019, the sales revenue of rubber machinery stopped growing and remained generally stable. Two rubber machinery companies in Japan have both experienced a decline, with their share accounting for 10.4% of global rubber machinery sales revenue, a decrease of 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year.

From a product perspective, the tire sector experienced a significant decline, while the non tire sector saw overall growth. This year's growth rate (61%) was higher for the larger company Cimcorp/Finland, which mainly focuses on non tire rubber machinery. Among the top 10 "strong" enterprises, non tire rubber machinery mainly occupies 4 seats. The development momentum of non tire rubber machinery manufacturers is better than that of tire rubber machinery manufacturers. Non tire rubber machinery is the main economic growth point of the global rubber machinery industry.

The sales revenue of the top ten "strong" companies reached 2.167 billion US dollars, accounting for 61.3% of the total sales, with a year-on-year increase of 0.7 percentage points. The top three "strong" sales revenue reached $1.117 billion, accounting for 31.6% of total sales, with a slight year-on-year increase. The top three have been relatively stable in recent years, accounting for nearly one-third of the world's rubber machinery. The concentration of the industry continues to increase, and the stronger the stronger, showing a trend of becoming larger companies.

The main reason for the overall decline of world rubber machinery is the global trade barriers and the depression of the automobile industry, especially the isolation of countries and regions caused by the COVID-19, which has a great impact on world trade and automobile transportation, which is more adverse to the development of the world rubber machinery industry.

3. Investment confidence of rubber machinery enterprises remains strong, and acquisition and restructuring are becoming more active

ERJ designed three survey questions, and although respondents believed that the world economy was sluggish, the investment confidence of rubber machinery enterprises remained strong. 84.6% of respondents stated that they plan to expand production capacity within the next year, 61.5% plan to upgrade production lines, and 38.5% plan to acquire and restructure, all of which have been relatively high in recent years.