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Published on: Tuesday, Tue, 17 Jul 2018 ● 4 Min Read
Cinisello Balsamo (Italy) July 2018 – A quite positive 2017 was the outcome of the Italian industry manufacturing machine tools, robots and automation systems, totalling a turnover of over 9 billion euro and highlighting an upturn for all main economic indicators.
Ranking fourth among manufacturers, Italy confirmed its third position among exporters; in addition, it stabilised its fifth place in the consumption ranking, as a testimony to the lively domestic demand that benefitted from the incentive provisions for competitiveness.
The forecasts for 2018 confirm that the positive trend will continue for the whole year. Production and exports will grow, but, exactly like in 2017, consumption, deliveries to the domestic markets and imports will register stronger increases, all of them double-digit rises, supported by the Super- and Hyper-Depreciation measures implemented by the Enterprise Plan 4.0.
This is, in brief, the picture of the situation illustrated by President Massimo Carboniero, on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE Member Companies, which was also attended by the President of Confindustria (Italian Industrial Federation), Vincenzo Boccia, last week.
In 2017, production, grown by 9.6%, reached 6,085 million euro. The outcome was due to the positive trend of the manufacturers’ deliveries in the domestic market, gone up by 17.4% to 2,700 million, as well as to the good performance of exports, which, back to a positive sign, achieved 3,385 million euro, i.e. 4.1% more compared with the previous year.
In 2017, the main destination markets of the Italian offering were: Germany (343 million, -9.1%), China (342 million, +8.2%), United States (318 million, -9.8%), France (213 million, -5.1%), Poland (162 million, +17.8%), Spain (134 million, +15.3%), Mexico (122 million, +22.6%), Russia (8 million, +16.8%).
The result of consumption was very positive: for the third consecutive year, it registered a double-digit growth, achieving 4,464 million euro, i.e. 15.7% more versus 2016.
The positive trend of the Italian industry of the sector will be confirmed even in 2018, as shown by the forecast data processed by the Studies Dept of UCIMU. In particular, production will go up by 9.3% to 6,650 million euro. Consumption will attain 5,070 million euro, i.e., 13.6% more versus 2017, driving both the manufacturers’ deliveries in the domestic market, expected to grow by 15.2% to 3,110 million, and imports (1,960 million, +11.1%).
Export will also keep on increasing: with a 4.6% rise it will reach the value of 3,540 million euro. The data recorded by the sales of machine tools overseas in the first three months of the year confirm the positive trend (attached Export Table). The export/production ratio, decreased owing to the recovery of Italian demand in 2014, will go down again, reaching 53.2%.
Massimo Carboniero, President of UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE, affirmed: “We closed a really positive 2017 and the year 2018 should be just as favourable. As highlighted by the forecasts and by the latest data concerning the index of orders, both the foreign and the domestic markets are giving satisfactory results to the Italian enterprises of the sector”.
“With particular reference to the domestic market – continued Carboniero – the last order index of the second quarter of 2018, back to a positive sign after the decrease of the first quarter, confirms the dynamism of demand expressed by Italian users. As we had supposed, the reduction was mainly due the decision of customers to pass their orders in advance, at end of 2017, when the effectivity of the Super- and Hyper-Depreciation provisions was certain. After the initial stop, the Italian users almost immediately started to invest again, when the provisions were confirmed for the whole year 2018. Obviously, we can no longer expect the increases registered last year, but the growth, even if moderate, shows that the market is still going up, stabilising on record levels.”
“This last data collection proves the validity of the instruments for competitiveness and also the need of the Italian manufacturing industry to invest in new technologies. Nobody invests in state-of-the-art manufacturing systems if it is not necessary and the survey of FONDAZIONE UCIMU-Eumetra, presented at the end of June, highlights that 50% of the Italian metal and mechanical enterprises made investments in new machines in 2017”.
“The point is that not all companies are aware that they have to innovate their production plants. Small- and mid-sized enterprises need time to evaluate and start investments and this applies even more to Industry 4.0 that carries real organization revolutions, more difficult to imagine and to implement”.
