Made in Italy glass: exports and sales increase in 2014

Positive trend for Italian glass processing machinery which further strengthens its position with a rise in sales (+2.84%) and exports (+3.34%). Domestic market remains weak.  

The 2014 figures for the industry prepared by Gimav – Italian Manufacturers’ Association of Machinery, Accessories and Special Products for Glass Processing – confirm that business activity has picked up across all the sectors, despite lingering signs of weakness in the domestic market.

Total sales increased, totaling € 1,179,842,320 and up by 2.84% over 2013 largely owed to sales of flat glass processing machinery.

Domestic market

Percentage increases in the domestic market were rather steady, up by 14.97% versus 2013. This result was largely due to hollow glass which posted a 43.80% increase, whereas the performance of flat glass remained at the same level as the year before.

Exports

The export drive of Italian glass companies was fully confirmed, with exports once again accounting for 80% of total sales in 2014.

The overall figure shows that the situation is excellent, despite the ups and downs of the market after the dramatic standstill in 2009 which continued into the 2014 financial period as well. The overall increase in exports over the previous year amounted to 3.34%, broken down into:

- Machinery, accessories and special products for flat glass: 5.52%

- Machinery, accessories and special products for hollow glass: - 0.02%

Geographical breakdown of exports

After the exception of 2011, in 2014 the European Union was the leading export destination for Italian products; the entire European continent (EU and non-EU countries) accounted for more than 50% of total exports: this figure confirms that demand from the industrialized economies of Europe has definitely bounced back and has started to grow again.

Although the absolute figures for Africa were not significant, there was a definite increase, whereas exports to Asia continued to fall even though it continues to account for a large share of total exports by the industry.

Despite a significant slowdown, demand from the American continent remained good: both the NAFTA countries and Central and South America settled at good levels, respectively at 11.59% and 10.43% of total exports.

The top export destinations for Italian products remain France with 8.47% of total exports. China returned to second position, followed by Russia, Brazil, United States, Mexico and Turkey.

Very positive signs also came from Spain which increased its purchases by 55.78%. The increase in sales to the Czech Republic and, above all, Romania, was particularly significant. Romania in fact posted an exceptional increase in value of 1127% over 2013 and accounted for 3.89% of total exports.

Gimav Director Renata Gaffo commented on the results: “After the significant decline posted between 2008 and 2009 due to the deep crisis that is making its effects felt on economic-financial policy worldwide, the sector has slowly started to grow again, weakly in 2010, gaining more momentum in 2011, with some sharp standstills in 2012 and more regularly over the past two years”. “Despite this – Renata Gaffo continued – the situation is still very difficult, in the Euro zone in general but especially in the domestic market, where there have been weak signs of a recovery in some export markets only in recent months. The heavy burden of energy costs, labor costs and high taxes, considerably weigh down our companies, and makes it extremely difficult to plan medium- to long-term investments”.

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