The Italian packaging industry continues to expand, reporting 3.6% growth in 2014

The Italian automatic packaging machinery manufacturers industry retained its position as one of the healthiest and most dynamic segments of the Italian economy in 2014.

According to the third National Statistical Survey conducted by the Ucima Research Department, the 604 companies making up the sector employed 27,307 people and in the twelve months of last year generated a turnover of 6.221 billion euros (+3.6%), yet another all-time record.

Some 81.2% of this turnover was generated in international markets (5.048 billion euros), and 18.8% from domestic market sales (1.172 billion euros).

Main export markets

The European Union was the top export area for Italian technologies in 2014 with 33.1% of the total, corresponding to 1,578.4 million euros, 1.6% up on 2013. Asia was in second place with a value of 1,270.9 million euros and a 26.7% share of turnover (up 11.9% on 2013). Non-EU European countries were in third position with 531.6 million euros (0.7% down on 2013) and an 11.2% share of total turnover. Next were Central-South America (481.9 million euros, or 10.1% of the total and down by 14.9%), Africa and Oceania (460.1 million euros, 9.7% of the total and a fall of 5.5%) and North America (439.3 million euros, 6.6% down to 9.2% of the total).

The United States remained the largest market for Italian technologies, accounting for 8.4% of total exports or 398.2 million euros, followed by China (340.3 million euros), France (332 million euros), Germany (289.9 million euros) and Indonesia (209.6 million euros). 

Italian sales up by 15.6%

Italian domestic sales performed well to reach 1,172 million euros, 15.6% up on the previous year.

This included strong increases in sales of technologies for the pharmaceutical (up 48.9% to 216.5 million euros), cosmetics (+49.4% to 88.7 million euros) and chemicals industries (+44.1% to 64.6 million euros).

Client sectors

However, the largest volumes of machinery sold in the domestic market were for the food and beverage sectors, which accounted for a turnover of 669.6 million euros, 57.1% of the Italian total.

Food industry machinery accounted for 31.8% of total turnover and beverage industry machinery 29.5%. Machinery for the pharmaceuticals industry came next at 16.1%, followed by machinery for the cosmetics industry at 4.7%, machinery for the chemicals industry at 4.2%, and other sectors (tissue, tobacco) at 13.3% of the total.

Structure of companies and geographical breakdown

The analysis of the sector by turnover size class reveals a clear preponderance of small companies. Companies with turnovers below 5 million euro accounted for 69.8% of the total in numbers, but generated just 10.4% to the sector’s total turnover.

Companies with turnovers above 25 million euros made up just 7.4% of the total but generated the largest share (66.6%) of total turnover.

Most companies were located in Emilia Romagna (36.3%), accounting for 54.6% of total turnover. Next came Lombardy (28.6%), Veneto (9.7%) and Piedmont (10.9%).

An analysis of the companies’ export propensity reveals significant differences in terms of their presence in the various markets. While the smallest companies (up to 2.5 million euro) generate more than half of their turnover (50.9%) in the Italian market, the percentage of domestic sales decreases steadily with company size, reaching just 10.1% of turnover for the largest companies (more than 50 million euros).

2015 forecasts

“During the initial months of the year we saw a slowdown in orders in the main markets, although this trend appears to have bottomed out,” commented Ucima’s Chairman, Giuseppe Lesce.

“We are therefore optimistic about this year’s results,” continued Lesce.