Packaging machinery: in 2019, the turnover of this industry in Italy grew by 2.2 percent compared to the previous year. The 2020 numbers are affected by the ongoing pandemic that has already reduced production in all industries by 19.2 percent.
Fourth consecutive year of growth for the packaging machinery sector in Italy. Thanks to a 2.2 percent increase in sales in 2019 over 2018, the only positive sign in the capital goods sector, 8 billion euros was reached for the first time in history.
This is one of the most significant figures to emerge from the recent UCIMA (Union of Italian Automated Packaging Machinery Manufacturers) survey, which reports data from a particularly strategic sector for Italy that EiQ Industrial also addresses.
The survey includes trends for 2019 and therefore does not consider the effects of the pandemic that is still ongoing but is a good snapshot of the pre-covid sector. According to the report, packaging machinery manufacturers have increased their business volume by nearly 50 percent in 8 years.
Nearly 80 percent of the industry’s sales are made abroad with the European Union confirmed as the main destination area for products (37.5 percent) followed by Asia (22.1 percent) and North America (12.8 percent).
When it comes to the specific target sectors, food accounts for 29.6 percent, beveragefor26.4 percent and pharmaceuticals for 18.3 percent.
Most companies are concentrated along the Via Emilia axis from Piacenza to Rimini (the so-called packaging valley) with production districts also in Piedmont, Veneto and Tuscany. In Emilia-Romagna alone, 36 percent of industrial activities are concentrated.
So far the final data for 2019, but this year the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the game, changing the industry’s outlook considerably.
“We had expected a slowdown in growth for 2019, after four positive years and the +9.4 percent exploit recorded in 2018”-explains Enrico Aureli, former president of UCIMA whose tenure ended just this summer-but we know very well that this year we will have to face the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which will imply drastically different performance from what we have become accustomed to. Most of our companies have always worked even during the lockdown, but we will have to deal with the slowdown in production activities and the slowdown in global demand.”
To understand how the industrial sector in Italy is evolving, a recent Confindustria quick survey comes to our aid. According to this report, there was a rebound in industrial production in June and July, which was moreover intuitable given the end of the lockdown measures. The survey revealed in particular that in July there was a 7.5 percent growth in industrial production over June.
It should be noted, however, that despite the positive economic data, the change in industrial production from a year earlier still remains very negative (-13.9 percent in July). In addition, industrial production in the second quarter is estimated to be down 19.2 percent (down 8.4 percent in the first).
Domestic demand also remains weak, while on the foreign front there were some faint signs of improvement in July. About one-third of the fall in GDP in the second quarter (-12.4 percent) was driven by the decline in industrial value added, while a strong negative contribution was made by services, which account for a high share of GDP. A rebound in GDP and output is expected in the third quarter.
In this context, EiQ Industrial has continued to work to support its customers in the supply of switchboards, among the indispensable products within strategic sectors such as automatic packaging machines. The company just recently invested in the development of the Hygienic Design range, designed to meet the growing hygienic demands of today’s market.
