Page 92 - AMEFT Journal 2021-4

PROCESSING & PACKAGING
Italian packaging machinery market recoups
The automatic packaging machin- ery industry recorded robust 21% growth in the first half of 2021 com- pared to the same period in 2020. In the period from January to June, ex- ports were 19.3% higher than in the first half of 2020 and domestic sales up by 31.2%. With these figures, the entire industry has returned to pre- pandemic levels, with a difference of just-1.8% compared to the first half of 2019 (a record year that saw year-end sales in excess of 8 billion euros).
This performance was the combined result of 9.2% growth in the first quar- ter and an even higher 29.4% growth in the second quarter compared to the same period in the previous year. The growth is similar in the domestic market (+34%) and in the export mar- ket (+28.4% compared to the previ- ous year). The Ucima-Mecs Research Centre also published data on orders, which were up by 10.9% in the second
quarter and 10.7% over the entire first half of the year.
The Research Centre also reported the results for 2020 in the ninth Na- tional Statistical Survey, which every year provides an overview of the sec- tor’s performance. Last year the Ital- ian automatic packaging machinery manufacturers essentially maintained the previous year’s turnover levels. Following the record figures of 2019, the sector saw a modest year-on-year decline of 2.9% to 7.81 billion euros, in line with the result of 2018 (7.9 billion euros).
Last year also saw an increase in both the number of companies in busi- ness (635 in total, +3.1%) and in the number of employees, which grew by 7% to 35,630.
International market
In line with 2019, export sales ac- counted for 78% of the total (6,08
billion euros) but fell by 4.1%. The European Union remained the main target market for Italian packag- ing machinery and accounted for 41% of total turnover (2,087 million euros) including sales in Italy, fol- lowed in second place by Asia with a value of 985.8 million euros and a 19.4% share, then North America in third place with 733.1 million euros (14.4%). North America is the only macro region that saw growth in turn- over (+5.9%) with respect to 2019, a year when exports dropped to 691.9 million euros. Next came non-EU Eu- rope (8.6%, or 439.7 million euros), Africa and Oceania (8.4%) and Cen- tral and South America (8.2%).
The domestic market
The domestic market continued the positive trend seen in recent years with sales up 1.9% year-on-year in 2020 to 1.72 billion euros.
(Source: Pixabay)
92 AMEFT 4 2021
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