Excellent start to the year for exports from the Piedmont districts, which in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 7,5% compared to the previous year, reaching new records and rising to 2,1 billion euros. The Piedmontese district territories also stood out for their marked ability to create trade surplus, which rose to 1,4 billion euros, an all-time high for the quarter in question.
This is the balance sheet Studies and Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo, which today released the data on the 11 traditional districts of Piedmont and the 2 technological poles. This is an exceptionally good result, considering that Italian district exports, in the same period, grew much less (+2,4%). With 145 million euros of exports more than in the first quarter of 2017, Piedmont ranks second (after Lombardy) among the Italian regions with a high district intensity for the increase in the value of exports. Thanks to the ability to seize the growth opportunities present on the markets for good integration into international supply chains and by leveraging the quality and diversification of productions, in Piedmont the districts showed a better trend than the total of the Piedmontese economy, whose exports increased by 2018% in the first quarter of 1,2.
They are 7 districts out of 11 to have seen their exports grow, 6 of these recorded rates above the national average (double-digit growth rates were recorded for 3 districts):
- the strong growth of exports of the Goldsmith district of Valenza continues (+20,9% compared to the first quarter of 2017) and of the wines of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato (+13,4%), both counted among the top ten Italian industrial districts in terms of increase in exports in the first quarter of 2018
- strong positive results also for Vercelli rice (+12,8%) and Biella textile (+7%)
- exports of sweets from Alba and Cuneo (+3,1%), coffee, confectionery and chocolate from Turin (+2,4%) and taps and fittings from Cusio-Valsesia (+1,7%) also increased
- after a dark 2017, only slightly negative exports of Hazelnuts and Piedmontese fruit (-1,5%)
- exports of Omegna housewares show a limited contraction (-3,5%)
- two districts achieved significantly negative performances: the industrial refrigerators of Casale Monferrato (-13,8%) and the textile machinery of Biella (-19,7%)
Exports to traditional outlet markets are doing well (+ 11,5 % the trend change in the first quarter of 2018); in slight decrease in traffic to new markets (-2,6%). In particular, the results were excellent in the following markets: Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Germany, Spain, Poland, Belgium and Russia. On the other hand, there was a decline in some markets: Hong Kong, Austria, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Algeria.
The forecast scenario risks being conditioned by the resurgence of protectionist threats that have emerged in recent weeks. Although the national data collected so far suggest a decidedly less lively year of foreign trade than in 2017, expectations for the Piedmont districts are currently positive for the second half of the year.
