3,602 wooden housing units will be built in Italy in 2022, an increase of one percentage point compared to 2021, allowing our country to confirm its position as the third largest producer of wooden housing solutions in 2022, after Germany and Sweden and ahead of Austria.
This confirms the dynamism of a sector that has reached Euro 2.3 billion in turnover (plus 15.8 per cent over 2021). A result that is the result of residential timber production – 866 million euro and plus 12.7 per cent compared to 2021 – which corresponds to one fifth of that of Germany (4.4 billion euro) and 7.2 per cent of that of the 27 EU countries, or 12 billion euro in total.
In addition to residential construction, non-residential timber construction – 633 million euro with a plus of 12.2 per cent over 2021 – and traditional construction – 767 million euro with a plus of 22.9 per cent over 2021.
This is highlighted by the data of the eighth ‘Timber Construction Report’, produced by FederlegnoArredo’s study centre to photograph the state of health of the timber construction supply chain which, with the passing of the years and an ever-increasing focus on the theme of sustainability and CO2 storage, has been able to carve out a well-defined space for itself within the construction world.
Another fact that emerges from the Report is the geography of the companies involved in green building, with the greatest concentration of operators in Lombardy, where 73 companies operate, Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto, which together account for 50 per cent of the total.
However, it is Trentino-Alto Adige that takes first place among the regions with the largest and most highly specialised companies in the sector. It is no coincidence that it is precisely in Trentino-Alto Adige that 19 per cent of total production is realised, followed by Lombardy at 16 per cent, while Piedmont and Veneto stand at 6 and 5 per cent respectively.
Analysing the size of the companies in the sector, FederlegnoArredo’s eighth report leaves us with a snapshot according to which the top 10 companies account for almost 31 per cent of the market and 68 per cent have a total turnover of less than 5 million euro and only 7 per cent have a turnover of more than 50 million euro, but account for 46 per cent of the market, demonstrating that the sector is still very much in the hands of a few.
“This year’s report confirms how green building is gradually gaining new market shares, demonstrating that it has the potential to act as a concrete alternative to traditional building, within a path of sustainability and valorisation of wood for CO2 storage. What is needed, however, is an operation to raise awareness and promote the sector, making both private citizens and public administrations increasingly aware of the value that timber structures have in terms of sustainability. A path that we, as Assolegno of FederlegnoArredo, will continue to pursue also in our dealings with the institutions, so that measures to incentivise this type of building are envisaged,” Assolegno commented in the press release.
