This content was written and submitted by the supplier. It has only been modified to comply with this publication’s space and style.
The Italian automatic packaging machinery sector is expected to close the year with a further increase in turnover.
According the preliminary end-of-year results published by the Statistics Department of the Italian national trade association Ucima, the sector’s turnover is expected to exceed 6,200 million euros.
Growth is estimated at 3.3%, slightly smaller than the figure for the last few years.
This result is largely attributable to exports, which made up 82.2% of total turnover and grew by 2.2% to 5,100 million euros.
The European Union remains the largest market for Italian technologies, followed by Asia and non-EU European countries.
According to the figures for the first nine months of the year, the top three importer countries are the United States, China and France.
The domestic market also performed strongly with 9% growth to more than 1,100 million euros. This was largely a result of the tax concessions on the purchase of capital goods offered by the so-called "Sabatini Bis" law.
The forecasts for 2015 are lower.
"After years of steady growth, we have seen a small slowdown in orders in our key geographical markets in recent months," said Ucima’s Chairman, Giuseppe Lesce.
"The outlook for the coming year is therefore very cautious, particular given the uncertainly caused by the social and political unrest and the economic downturn in a number of key markets."
