Italian woodworking machinery: 2014 preliminary balance

17/12/2014

The industry of technology for wood and wood-based materials is still in the middle of a difficult season. This is the message from today’s meeting with the Italian trade press organized by Acimall, the Confindustria-member association that gathers the most important companies in Italy. No rebound, no overwhelming trend reversal, although so many are expecting a change. The situation remains difficult in Italy compared to many foreign countries, but there is no region in the world showing great performance. This does not change the fact that export is the main destination for Italian production, which cannot rely on a favorable domestic market…

This picture is clearly outlined by the preliminary balance of 2014 for Italian wood and wood-based materials technology; the figures processed by Acimall’s Studies Office indicate that, in the past seven “endless” years, the Italian industry has lost 30 percent of its turnover.

ITALIAN WOODWORKING MACHINERY.2014 PRELIMINARY BALANCE

Tools included, in million Euros

	2014	∆% 2014/2013

Production	1,545	+0.5%
Export	1,163	-2.0%
Import	118	-17.5%
Trade balance	1,045	0.0%
Domestic market	382	+9.1%
Apparent consumption	500	+1.4%
Source:Acimall Studies Office, December 2014

Production amounted to 1,545 million Euro, with a slight decrease from the previous year. Export, while remaining a key strength of Italian industry, decreased by 2 percent, which is still an encouraging result compared to minus 3.6 in 2013 and minus 8 percent in 2012.

Import – which accounts for less than one-fourth of the Italian market – stopped at 118 million Euro, down by 17.5 percent from 2013.

Though at significant levels, the trade balance is standing still, with Acimall’s Studies Office predicting the same value as in 2013. An encouraging 9.1 percent growth of sales on the domestic market (versus plus 2.9 percent in 2013) resulted from government incentives to investments (the Sabatini Law first) and from the impossibility for companies to freeze expenditure for too long, if they want to keep an efficient fleet of equipment. This trend, opposite to the drop of import, seems to suggest that the market in 2014 preferred made-in-Italy technology.