Chinese Carmakers Drive Kautex Sales

An upturn in orders at industrial blow molding machine maker SIG Kautex, Bonn, Germany, is giving the firm a much-improved financial outlook. Orders in hand already reach 75% of the firm’s budgeted annual sales goal for 2003. Roger Stehr, managing director, says the largest share of the new business is from the automotive industry in China, especially for machines that fabricate multilayer fuel tanks.

The situation was not as bright last year, when 150 employees at Kautex and sister firm SIG Blowtec, in nearby Troisdorf, were released, and SIG indicated it was seeking buyers for Kautex. Still, Matthias Knill, spokesman for the parent SIG Group, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, says the option to divest Kautex remains open.

In related news, ceo Carlo Venturi has left SIG Beverages, which includes blow molding machine manufacturers SIG Corpoplast, Blowtec, and Kautex. Roman Boutellier, SIG Group ceo, will be the interim ceo while a replacement is sought.

Venturi joined SIG when the firm acquired Simonazzi, a manufacturer of beverage filling equipment, and was named SIG Beverages ceo in December 2001, when SIG combined Simonazzi with its SIG Plastics division, which included the blow molding machinery firms.