Italy continues to lose positions in the ranking of the top 20 manufacturing countries in the world: with a share that fell from 4,5% to 3,3% between 2007 and 2011, our country has slipped from fifth to eighth place, surpassed by India, Brazil and South Korea. Over 42 thousand Italian companies in the sector closed their doors between 2009 and 2011, while the newborns were just 12.477. The data comes from Study Center of Confindustria, which today presented its report on “Industrial Scenarios”.
"The reduction in the stock of active manufacturing companies - underlined the CSC - began in 2000 and, with the crisis, continued at an ever more intense pace". In essence, the "destruction of production base in manufacturing sectors" has increased because terminations have grown while enrollments have decreased. According to data from the CSC, the black jersey of terminations goes to metal product companies with 6.910 closures in 3 years. Followed by clothing (4.812), food (3.409), machinery and equipment (3.302).
Italy “is today a slow country, which lacks a long-term vision, and where, as a consequence, less and less investments are made – commented the vice president of Confindustria with responsibility for the Study Centre, Fulvio Conti, speaking at the Csc seminar -. Lacks a country-project that identifies the priorities and development lines to be pursued". Conti then indicates a way to relaunch Italian production: “True liberalization – he maintains – is the bureaucratization of our country. To achieve a manufacturing renaissance, a light, clear and predictable regulatory framework is needed to support those investments that would encourage a solid industrial recovery".
The CSC report also states that the contraction in Italian industrial activity was 22,1% between April 2008 and March 2009. In May 2012 it recovered just 5,2% compared to the lowest level reached in March 2009. Until March of this year, then, no sector has returned to pre-crisis production levels and in some cases the gap is still more than 40%.
“The risk remains high that the credit crunch continue in the coming months”, adds the CSC, emphasizing that the financial situation of Italian companies is further aggravated by the extension of the payment times of the Public Administration, which reached 180 days in the first quarter of 2012, up from 128 in 2009. Payment times between private companies have also become longer: 96 days in 2012, up from 88 in 2009.
Read the report of the Confindustria Study Centre
