Italian Packaging industry posts record turnover 

The Italian packaging machinery manufacturers have posted a 2011 turnover of more than 4,300 million euro. Forecasts are cautious for the current year. In view of the slowdown in the last few months of 2011, the projections for 2012 are in line with the previous year’s turnover levels.

The Italian packaging machinery manufacturers have posted outstanding results for 2011. The sector’s turnover totalled 4,300 million euro, 14.4% up on 2010 (the year when turnover returned to pre-crisis levels of 3,759 million euro). It even surpassed the record 2008 performance of 3,827 million euro. These were the main findings that emerged from the data collected by the Studies Centre of Ucima, the Italian packaging machinery manufacturers’ association.

By winning 26.4% of the global market compared to the 25.7% of 2010, the Italian industry has further consolidated its international leadership, second only to Germany (27.7%). The growth in Italian exports (+15.9%) was higher than the world average of +11.8%.

The forecasts for the current year are more cautious. “In view of the slowdown that set in during the last few months of 2011 and the continued state of uncertainty in all world markets, we are anticipating year-end results in line with the levels of 2011,” noted Ucima’s chairman Giuseppe Lesce.

Export champions
In 2011 the Italian packaging industry further strengthened its export share with respect to total turnover, up from 88.4% in 2010 to 89.5%. Export turnover amounted to 3,850 million euro, 15.9% up on 2010.The largest share, almost 65%, was sold outside the European Union, which however remained the top destination for Italian machinery with 34.1% of the total. Asia remained the largest non-European market in 2011 with 26.4% of total exports, while the other regions accounted for shares of between 8% and 11%.

The rankings of countries of destination of Italian exports were led by China with a total of 385.3 million euro, slightly down (-2.3%) on 2010 when exports to the country almost doubled.
The United States ranked second (up 32.6% to a total of 360.3 million euro) and France third with 332.5 million euro (+28.0%).
Amongst emerging markets, positive figures were posted in Russia (+14.2%) with a total of 162.4 million euro and Brazil (+5.6%) with 131.1 million euro, while Turkey showed outstanding 33.8% growth to a total of 128.6 million euro.
Amongst established markets, the industry posted strong performances in Germany (up 5.4% to 198.2 million euro), Spain (up 6.7% to 153.6 million euro) and Sweden (up 16.1%, to 111.7 million euro), while exports to the UK fell (down 2.7% to 135 million euro).

The most widely exported machines
Packaging machines accounted for the largest share of exports, accounting for 45.1% of export sales (up by 22.3% on 2010 to 1,909 million euro).
They were followed by filling, closing, capping and labelling machines with 27.5%, up 6.2% to a turnover of 1,164 million euro. Sales of machine parts and components rose by 13.3%, accounting for 25.6% of exports with a turnover of 1,081 million euro.
Next came machines for cleaning and drying containers (up 9.5% to 53.8 million euro); batching machines, bagging machines and other constant load instruments (up 71.9% to 20.1 million euro); predetermined weight control instruments (down 23.7% to 3.7 million euro) and instruments for weighing and labelling pre-packaged products (down 36.0% to 0.5 million euro).

The domestic market, fall in imports
At 450 million euro (2.9% up on 2010), the turnover generated by the domestic sales has remained at pre-crisis levels and continues to account for around 60% of domestic consumption, a total of 792 million euro (+0,5%). Imports amounted to 342 million euro, 2.6% down on 2010.

UCIMA is the Confindustria-affiliated trade association that represents Italian manufacturers of automatic packing and packaging machinery in Italy and worldwide. Its members include 100 companies that together account for 65% of the sector’s total turnover and more than 70% of Italian exports.