The Italian packaging machinery industry continues to grow, its total turnover exceeding the record figure of 8 billion euros registered in 2019.
According to the preliminary figures published by the Research Department of Ucima (Italian packaging machinery manufacturers’ association), the sector has seen 1.8% growth this year. Specifically, the Italian market has grown by a further 3.2% to a total of 1.713 billion euros following last year’s excellent results, partly achieved thanks to the government’s Industry 4.0 incentives.
Exports, which account for 78.6% of total turnover, also rose by 1.4% to 6.293 billion euros. The available disaggregated data reveal particularly high levels of performance for exports of Italian technologies to three macro regions: Asia (+12.7%), EU (+6.5%) and Africa/Oceania (+3%).
“We are satisfied and proud of this latest achievement, which demonstrates that our industry is solid and dynamic, capable of establishing itself at a global level and fully exploiting the development of international markets and all our client sectors,” commented Enrico Aureli, chairman of UCIMA. “But there is no room for complacency as we are facing tough challenges, increasingly fierce competition and highly unstable scenarios.”
The forecasts for 2020 therefore remain cautious. Areas of concern include the continued geopolitical turbulence in a number of markets, tariffs and trade tensions at an international level, and the failure of the Italian government’s policies to adequately address companies’ growth needs.
“According to the macroeconomic forecasts, global GDP growth will continue to decelerate, and at a sectoral level order acquisition is currently less positive than in the past,” concluded Aureli. “We therefore believe that 2020 may be a year of consolidation after a period of strong and uninterrupted growth in recent years. But we remain optimistic about our sector’s medium and long term growth prospects.”
