Tools included, in million Euros

These are 2012 final figures regarding woodworking and furniture production technology, tools included, processed by the Studies Office of Acimall, the Confindustria member association representing the companies of the industry.

The most significant figure is obviously production, that reached a value of 1,571 million Euros, a 7.5 percent decrease compared to 2011. A substantial decrease, which confirms the decline recorded in recent years, a period characterized by demand levels that do not allow the Italian industry to fully leverage its production capacity. Italian technology production might gain much more success and achieve higher values, but weak demand does not allow to start a new virtuous cycle.

Another clear evidence is the fragility of the domestic market, whose trend has influenced and will influence the achievements of the industry represented by Acimall. 488 million Euro apparent consumption of “made in Italy” companies processing wood and wood-based products (13.7 percent lower than in the previous year) immediately validate this remark and highlight the stagnation of Italian demand at increasingly worrying levels – if we also consider that import stopped at 130 million Euros, minus 16.5 percent compared to 2011.

In 2012, import accounted for 26.6 percent of national consumption, a relevant figure, with a clear predominance of entry-level solutions for low value-added processing, or high-technology and innovative machinery. The relationship with the two main supplier-countries is essentially stable: in 2012, again, import from Germany amounted to 70 million Euros, while China totaled 20 million Euros.

Let’s close with a view on export, that has always represented the real, strong vocation of Italian companies in our industry.

The trend can be defined as “basically stable”: in 2012, Italy sold machinery for 1,231 million Euros all over the world, down by 3.7 percent compared to 2011. Such percentage variation should not be considered with excessive pessimism; it is much more important to see that, despite the efforts by entrepreneurs and their sales partners, the trend is not reversing, yet.

The percentage of machines, tools and equipment sold to foreign customers is constantly increasing, however, and in 2012 it reached 78.3 percent of total national production. An opportunity on which everybody is working with much more determination and engagement, trying to minimize the impact of problems inevitably generated by a weak domestic market, with an increasing number of companies having an export share just few decimal points below 100 percent.

Remember that, from June 28, our traditional industry report, the Acimall 2012 Annual Report, will be available. Anyone interested can download the digital version at http://www.acimall.com/eng/index.cfm?id=151, or request a printed copy.

Source: Acimall