High drop in the index of orders collected by Italian machine tool manufacturers in the first quarter of 2020 is marked, a period where there was an 11 percent decrease compared to the same period of the previous year. This is what emerges from the latest survey carried out by the Ucimu-Sistemi per Produrre Study & Culture Center, the association of Italian manufacturers of machine tools, robots and automation. The drop in orders collected by manufacturers on the domestic market weighed on the overall result, down 41.3 percent compared to the period January-March 2019.
The decrease in order collection across the border was more contained, down 4.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, penalized by the significant drop in March, after two positive months.
Massimo Carboniero, president of Ucimu-Sistemi per Produrre says: “the sharp drop in order intake in the first quarter worries the industry companies very much, also because the negative result is however calmed by the activity that the companies carried out in the months of January and February, that is, before the Coronavirus emergency, when the push of the Transition 4.0 plan seemed to have intercepted the favor of the Italian manufacturing, suggesting a 2020 on the level of 2019“.
“Unfortunately, however, at the end of February and within a few days, the order collection activity has almost stopped, leaving the companies with a few new orders as never before. And this being the case, the situation for Italian manufacturers can only get worse as our factories have been closed for several weeks now, while many of our competitors – Germans first – continue to work and therefore can respond positively to the requests of the international market“.
“On the foreign side, China, which has always been at the top of our export destination countries, initially stopped all negotiations since it was hit first by the emergency, effectively blocking much of our work. And now that it starts again, as well as many of our other client countries whose manufacturing activity continues, it addresses its supply requests to those who are open to the detriment of our companies that risk, in a short time, losing important market shares gained over the years thanks to continuous investments in innovation, quality and marketing”.
