SHK-market Germany between break-in and expansion investments
NOVEMBER-Editorial of the Chief-Editor Dipl.-Ing. Winfried Hamich:
Never before around that season there were so many questions in disguise or also open questions after the German market situation in the underfloorheating-market. What has happened? After a good beginning of the year the sales in the 3rd quarter fell drastically pretty in unison with small and big, thick and thin providers sometimes already in July often not before August and it is not really sure “why”! Rise of the value added tax, outrunning home grants and so on. First it was thought to have „swallowed” well in the pull of the pleasing business cycle and now that! And meantime nobody else is still thinking about an “autumn ralley” anymore. Whereas it was calculated with a plus of 5-12% so far thanks to a good business in the first half 2007 now a reduction of plus 1 until minus 4% is now suspected for the current year. The perspectives also don’t really propitiate. Austria loses pep in 2008 according to clear prognoses; in Italy many record already now clear declines because of the discontinuation of several aid moneys; in Spain the long-term high falls quasi normally and also in Eastern Europe the belts are tightened. The price increase in the European area grows until 2,1% and profit warnings with Wolseley (here the annual earning sank about 12% on 474 million GBP in the last fiscal year) and Uponor (expectation of profits sank from 10 to 6%) just to single out two, also don’t really lift the spirits and it also seems like the EU- monopolies commission again wants to strike. + + + Contrariwise almost unimaginable investments are currently made. New halls and plant expansions everywhere, particularly in the domain multilayer pipes with Uponor, Rehau, Becker-Plastics, WRW, Maincor, Hewing, Viega/Gabo and some other companies that would like to publish that in due time effectively for PR on their owns. Only one example: On a ride on the motorway through Belgium to a visit of a company in Antwerp we recognize after passing the also optically conspicuous HENCO company two construction signs at the next two slip roads. On request we got the astonishing affirmation that Henco in realty expended its factory on 11.000 sq.m, a factory 4 with the same dimension was completely bought and HENCO 5 is planned on more 40.000 sq.m. With a production of 3,5 million metre per week you need space so from briefly existing 78.000 sq.m. until 127.000 sq.m. in the year 2009. + + + Obviously they don’t want to make the mistake as 2006 caused by a strong rise of the prices of copper the strong demand could not or just insufficiently be served and the many new Italian multilayer pipes came too late “on stream” and whole markets might become “tight” in future when you think about the high number of new and expanded multilayer pipe productions in Spain, Portugal, North Africa, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and so on. + + + Result: The industry grew in a newly arising demand boom, hopefully also to cope with the coming merciless competition. (our globalpipe subscribers could read this article already in October in our globalpipe-newsletter.
Contact: Dipl.-Ing. Winfried Hamich, winfried.hamich@kwd-online.de.
