MILAN, Italy -- The results of the periodical trend survey by Acimall’s Studies Office for the second quarter 2017 confirm the strength of this market segment. In the April-June period, orders recorded significant growth rates, compared to the same period of 2016 (previous quarter growth was 22.2 percent).

Final figure results from the performance of foreign trade show orders increasing by 34.8 percent in the second quarter. The trend of the Italian market is also positive, achieving an 18.7 percent gain after the negative result of minus 3.6 percent in January-March 2017.

This recovery has been driven by the long-awaited official document about the introduction of hyper-mortgages by the Italian government within the framework of the Industria 4.0 plan. Specific implementation guidelines were published in March and are now starting to arouse the interest of technology users. Acimall’s Studies Office expects such interest to turn into real business in the second half of the year, generating beneficial effects.

As to the orders book, the survey by the Confindustria member association of wood and wood-based materials machinery manufacturers indicates a period of 3 months, the same value as in the two previous quarter, while price variation since January 1st is 1.1 percent (it was 0.9 on March 30).

The forecast survey is still characterized by moderate optimism: 50 percent of the interviewees believe that foreign demand will expand further in the coming months (versus 44 percent in January-March), while another 50 percent expect a stationary trend (56 percent in the previous survey;  the final balance is 50, versus 44 in the January-March 2017 period). Optimism also pervades the domestic market: 13 percent of the sample predict growth (it was 17 percent in the first quarter), 81 percent expect substantial stability (78) and only 6 percent fear reduction, one percent more than in the previous quarter. The balance is plus 7, versus plus 1 in the final quarter 2016. See http://acimall.com.