It is positive the balance of 2010 of the Italian manufacturers of capital goods. After a 2009 to forget, all the main economic indicators of companies represented by Federmacchine, the federation of the sector, are back to grow.
This is briefly the situation presented on July 14 by Alberto Maria Sacchi, Federmacchine outgoing president, at the annual meeting, which hosted the meeting with the theme “The capital goods sector in Italy and Germany: comparing the two leaders” with the intervention of Roberto Crapelli, Ceo Roland Berger and Gregorio De Felice, head of the Research Department of Intesa San Paolo Bank.
According to data realized by the Statistics Group of Federmacchine, in 2010, production grew to 34 billion euros, 13.5 percent more than last year. Recovery is the main driver of exports, which grew by 16.2 percent, and amounted to 23 billion euros.
Main markets of the Italian industry were: China (2 billion), Germany (1.9 billion), France (1.8 billion), United States (1.3 billion).
Weaker, equal to 8.2 percent, is the increase of deliveries to the domestic market that reached a value of 11.1 billion euros, driven by consumption which, increased of 12 percent, amounted to 17 billion euros.
Although the data are positive, it should be noted that the land lost due to the crisis of 2009 has not yet been recovered. In 2010 production is still less than 20 percent from 2008, so the export backlog of 18 percent and domestic consumption which is still at 23.5 percent lower than the value recorded before the crisis.
On the other hand, the data emerged from the forecast survey conducted on a representative sample of companies in the sector, highlight in the first quarter of 2011, the discrepancy between the development of sales domestically and abroad. In the face of weak domestic demand, considered low by 33.4 percent of respondents, there is satisfaction with the performance of foreign demand rated ‘high’ by 43 per cent of respondents.
In the first decade of 2000 the ratio exports/production grew by 61 percent to 67 percent. The increasing share of production destined for foreign markets did not result in a significant growth of firms dimension, whose average number of employees has remained at around 28-29 units for an average turnover of 4-5 million.
On the other hand, considering the number of employees employed in the sector of capital goods, it is clear that after the reduction due to the great crisis, firms in the sector have started a recruitment process by breaking the negative trend observed since 2008 and that on the contrary, is still interested in the Italian manufacturing industry as a whole understood. Considering 2005 as the base 100, the index related to the workers employed in the companies of Federmacchine, increases from 95 (2009) to 96 (2010), while the index of the industry as a whole decreases from 94 (2009) to 92 (2010).
The major opening to international markets and the dynamism of the Italian manufacturers of capital equipment is reflected in increasing on the 2009-2010 period, of the contribution to: Gdp grew from 1.9 percent to 2.2 percent; total staff employed in industry, from 3.7 percent to 4 percent, and exports of goods alone, from 6.5 percent to 6.8 percent.
