Always a strong point of the Italian manufacturing system, as well as one of the industrial sectors that has best held up in the face of the difficulties of the economic context, the supply chain of instrumental mechanics is the subject to which the new publication of the Filiere e Sviluppo series created by UniCredit-Laterza is dedicated. Presented this morning in Milan by Zeno Rotondi, Head of Italy Research at UniCredit, the report "The supply chain of instrumental mechanics" examines a supply chain that counts overall over 20 businesses (including small artisans) for a production value of more than 71 billion euros (Prometeia estimates), focusing attention on the capital goods sector, considered among the champions of Made in Italy.
With 3.300 businesses and 28 billion euros in turnover (Federmacchine data), the Italian capital goods industry has its two peaks of excellence in the machine tool and packaging machinery sectors. In the presence of UniCredit General Manager Roberto Nicastro, there was a discussion on the success factors that allow Italian mechanical engineering companies to compete globally: technology and skilled workforce with technical and commercial skills, ability to respond to customers with customized solutions that integrate the upstream supply with the automation needs expressed by the downstream industry and presence of after-sales assistance services on all world markets.
With a turnover that, in 2012, yes amounted respectively to 5 billion euro and 4,5 billion euro, the machine tool sector and the packaging machinery sector express the best performances on the international market, as evidenced by the export data. Due to an increase in exports, 12% and 5% respectively, compared to 2011, the Italian manufacturers of machine tools and packaging machines remain steadfast at the top of the world rankings in the sector.
Especially in the rankings of exports in 2012 of the respective sectors, the Italian machine tool manufacturers are positioned second in Europe and third in the world; while manufacturers of packaging machines are in second place both on a European and worldwide scale. Undisputed players on the international scene, Italian companies in the two sectors have also demonstrated that they respond better to the crisis than their German competitors, whose market shares they eroded in the period 2007-2011. The good performances, collected mainly across the border, have allowed the industries of the two sectors to keep intact the human capital employed, the true value of the entire supply chain - as emerges from the Unicredit-Laterza study - registering, between 2004 and 2012, an increase in employment equal to 2% (machine tools) and 5,6% (packaging machines).
The volume dedicates an in-depth analysis to these two sectors, whose strength lies in carrying out ad hoc productions with custom-developed machines, with customized and innovative solutions. The enhancement and export of skills is the most visible and well-known sign of the ability of the Italian mechanical supply chains as a whole to compete in the new global and economic context. The percentage of production exported has grown steadily since 2003 and has allowed a faster recovery of operating margins since 2009.
