to make his first visit to the country of Brazil, signifying the importance of the show and the local market to the injection molding machine supplier. Joined by Christoph Rieker, general manager Sumitomo (SHI) Demag do Brasil Comércio de Máquinas para Plástico Ltda. (Tamboré), Okamura noted to PlasticsToday that Sumitomo and Demag have a long-held presence in Brazil, with the latter actually making machines in country until 1998.

Even after ceasing location production, Demag maintained its office space and local technicians to service the existing installed machine base. Sumitomo, which joined with Demag three years ago, integrated its Brazilian operation into Demag's, and the company estimates an installed machine base of around 850. At this point, Sumitomo Demag has 12 employees in country, with additional support provided from Germany and Japan.

Okamura said the local packaging and automotive sectors have been the strongest for Sumitomo Demag, and while the market slowed during the global economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, the overall impact to its Brazilian business compared to the U.S. and Japan was very small.

The company featured the high-performance hybrid it launched at the K show in Germany on its stand. Sumitomo Demag has already sold several of the machines into Brazil, with Brasilplast marking the formal market introduction. Okamura said his company is working to find more agents for the region, with the Brazilian office intended to serve as a base from which to serve South America, while its U.S. office handles Mexico and Central America.

Integration ongoing

"Integration is still ongoing," Okamura said, noting that there have already been and will continue to be joint-development efforts between the two firms in technology after they joined in the spring of 2008. Most regions are completely combined with the process now ongoing within the U.S. market. The company will maintain both brands on the basis of Sumitomo's strong recognition in Asia, Demag's strength in Europe, and both company's presence within different sectors in North America. "Sumitomo is a good brand and Demag is a good brand," Okamura said, "we don't want to destroy them."

Altogether, Okamura said the company's have a global installed base in excess of 100,000 machines, with 20,000 in Europe, 20,000 in North America, and 20,000 in Japan.

Rieker said that company sells 50-60 presses/year in Brazil, of late targeting the growing market demand for all-electric injection molding machines. Increasingly there is more and more local competition coming from Chinese suppliers, but Rieker said his company has been able to maintain a market share of around 11% in the so-called "high-end market", with the entire annual market for presses in Brazil estimated at around 2800.

In a May 17 press release, Sumitomo Demag noted that by the end of April its factory in Wiehe, which supplies Latin America, saw its order intake for small machines double on  a year-over-year basis. The company said boom that was fueled by domestic and international customers, with a "flood of demand" from emerging markets like China, Mexico, and Turkey. As a central production location for all-electric injection molding machines for the European and American markets, Wiehe's jump in production also means that sales volumes of all-electric injection presses have risen disproportionately when measured against the overall sales figures, according to the company.