Every year Acimga’s Research Department publishes the Sector Report, gathering the industry’s market data from the previous year.
Italy is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of graphic, paper and converting machines, with Italian companies offering a comprehensive range of products. Italy is world leader in rotogravure and flexographic printing machines as well as paper and converting machines, while it is dependent on imports mainly for phototypesetting machines, scanners, and prepress processes in general. In regard to target sectors, overt the last few years there has been a progressive shift towards the packaging market (which now generates over 80% of total industry revenues) mirrored by a drop in production intended for the graphic industry (less than 20%) resulting from the increasing spread of multimedia technology in the graphic and publishing industry. Production for other industry sectors is almost insignificant at around 1%.
The Italian industry has always been strongly export-oriented and over the last few years, despite the global economic crisis, it even succeeded in slightly improving its international standing.
The Italian industry of graphic, paper and converting machinery closed 2020 with a significant drop in revenues (-15.8%) over the previous year at €2,386 million. Exports suffered a 18.1% plunge, while domestic sales saw a smaller 12.4% decline at just below €1,000 million in value. Imports also dropped by 19.6% to a value of €437 million. The trade balance surplus decreased from €1,150 to €950 million.
As might be expected in a year marked by the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting containment measures, in 2020 domestic consumption saw a 14.7% drop to €1,436 million. The market share covered by the domestic industry grew by two percentage points, from 68% to 70%.
In 2019, opposite export and import trends led to a decrease in the export share of production to 60%. In 2020, both trade flows suffered a drop, with a more significant decline in exports, hitting the lowest figure since 2011. This is due to a double-digit drop in exports of converting machinery (-12.8% on 2019), which account for over 55% of the total; binding machines and printing machines show an even more significant drop, respectively -32.3% and -26.5%. Paper and cardboard processing machinery and prepress machinery suffered more modest decrease, respectively -10.4% and -12.9%.
In the meanwhile, data from the first semester of 2021 confirms positive figures for all indicators, forecasts for the third quarter indicating general optimism. In the first six months of 2021, turnover grew by 21.4% compared to the previous year, for a total value of 1,406 million. With regards to the orders forecasts, stability prevails, both for domestic orders and for foreign orders.
