The European Federation of Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers EUMABOIS has recently elected a new board of directors at its general assembly held in Jyväskylä, Finland. The non-profit organization continues to promote the European woodworking machinery industry with its new board.
Representing more than 800 companies, Eumabois had an assembly meeting and elected a new board. The new president is Ambrogio Delachi, president of Acimall, the Italian woodworking technology manufacturers association, while the position of vice-president falls to Juergen Koeppel, member of the Homag Group board, representing German association VDMA. The other members were confirmed for new term: Zdenek Bezdek (SVDSZ, Czech Republic), Heikki Sonninen (TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES OF FINLAND, Finland) and Erich Zeller (HBT, Switzerland), in addition to Treasurer Jean Paul Balz (HBT, Switzerland).
As a non-profit organization, Eumabois is focused on promoting the European woodworking machinery industry, protecting its business interests and dealing with all matters of relevance to its members. Technical, marketing and fair policy issues are among the main tasks of the Federation. Eumabois plays a major role in the international market, hosts qualified experts to address technical and economical problems, and has created an information and interaction network involving the most experienced entrepreneurs in business.
The retiring president, Franz-Joseph Buetfering, opened the meeting with his report, which gave a particularly significant review of the European group’s work over the last six years. Buetfering immediately emphasized the importance of the presence, for the first time in the federation’s history, of two new companies, Belgian Robland and Turkish Toskar.
Mr Buetfering moved on to mention the activities of the “Tool Group” and the “good work on communications”, starting with the new website and the creation of the Eumabois Newsletter and the Eumabois Annual Report.
According to the Annual Report, production in Europe has decreased towards the end of 2012 and the trend continued in the early months of 2013. The credit crunch is struggling investments, while unemployment rates have achieved an all-time high. The inflation rate has increased above the average, as a result of low profit margins on sales. The soft spot is the financial system: the progress towards a full banking union, enabling a common surveillance and anti-crisis system, is essential to stabilize Europe in the medium term. Concurrently, Europe will have to deal with low cash flows affecting the banking systems of a few countries, injecting fresh capitals that enable institutes to re-launch loans and credit. The fiscal consolidation process is advancing slowly, however some progress is expected in 2013 and good results in 2014. Unemployment remains around 12%, with a similar outlook also in 2013.
The report also mentions about the European woodworking machinery and tool industry that recorded a 1.8% decrease in 2012 compared to the previous year, achieving revenue totaling 5,794 million euro. The purchase of machinery from abroad has decreased about two percentage points compared to the 2011 level, reaching 538 million euro.
Estimates indicate that in the woodworking machinery and tool industry there are more than 1000 significant companies with a work force of more than 35,000 employees. Considering the number of companies in the industry, the nations with the highest amount are Germany and Italy. Considering the turnover of companies, Germany industry covers a market share of 45%; Italy in the 2012 registered a market share by
28%.
The next assembly will be held on 12 September 2014 in Verona, hosted by Ancimall, the Italian association.