Markets to explore: China

From the cooperation between ICE-Agenzia and Edizioni Dativo, the column dedicated to Italian companies operating in the packaging sector keen on considering their potential for growth abroad.

China: the value of imports
According to figures of the Customs of the Chinese People’s Republic, in 2013 total Chinese imports of packaging machines stood at 1,785.79 billion USD, an increase of 6.78% over the previous year.
Italy is firmly in second place among exporters immediately after Germany. In 2013, overall imports from Italy totalled 391.97 million USD, an increase of 3.71% compared to 2012 and giving Italy a market share of 21.95%.
The trend is also confirmed in the first two quarters of the current year (January-September): Italy is as ever the second largest exporter after Germany, with the value of exports to China totalling 328.66 million USD in the first nine months of 2014.
Compared to the same period in 2013, this shows an increase of 19.82%, reducing the gap with Germany to 52.18 million USD, half the 106.26 million USD that separated the countries in 2013.
 
Considerations
China constitutes a market of great importance for Italian companies in the sector, since the Chinese economy will continue to feature sustained growth over the coming decade.
The economic policy measures adopted by the new Chinese leadership will tend more and more to foster and support the country’s domestic consumption alongside exports as a fundamental driver of growth. In cascade form, the exponential growth in demand for consumer goods will drive the demand for capital goods, including packaging machinery.
Similarly, the growing attention of the Chinese government to “green” technologies - due to  the known pollution problems affecting that country - is giving rise to increased demand for intermediate goods with a high technology content and low environmental impact, a trend that will be further boosted in the near future. And, in this respect, it is noted already how flagship Italian products have impressed Chinese customers for the high reliability, excellent quality and competitive price of the solutions on offer. 
   
The project is coordinated from the ICE-Agenzia headquarters in Rome, out of the Office of Engineering, Chemicals, Energy and Environment, directed by Alessandro Liberatori. Management representative: Matteo Masini, tel. 06.5992.9356, email: [email protected]

Figure 1 - Amount of China import of packaging machinery from 2011 to 2013.
Figure 2 - Amount of China import year to date (January to September) of packaging machinery.