The LegnoArredo Italia manufacturing runs faster than the other Italian and European ones (+12,9 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the +4,7% of the remaining industrial platforms), and, thanks to the race of Made in Italy on all continents , at the end of the year should almost reach the all-time record of the best trade balance surplus of 2001 (respectively 8,1 and 8,3 billion euro).
With these first numbers Gregorio De Felice, Chief economist and Head of Research Intesa Sanpaolo, opened the presentation, which took place today at the Milan Triennale of study “The Italian furniture industry: challenges and opportunities for growth, in collaboration with the Salone del Mobile and the FederlegnoArredo system. An important event that seals with record numbers a recovery with a strong impact of the entire sector and the great success of a Supersalone, which no one, and above all the industrialists of the sector, expected: more than half of the visitors are foreign operators and operators .
Intesa Sanpaolo, institutional partner of the Salone del Mobile Milano, it is the first Italian bank also in financial support to the furniture sector and the production system, has confirmed that it will continue in this collaboration with investments in the circular economy, sustainability and internationalization starting from 1,5 billion euro of which 1 billion euro to reduce the environmental impact e 500 million to develop activities abroad.
“The recovery of the sector is part of that of the Italian economy and that of the entire world economy - De Felice declared - which has benefited from colossal investments, no less than 18 trillion dollars of investments from all governments. As for the year-end forecasts for Italy, we are approaching 6 percent. It is therefore a favorable picture which, however, requires us to face new challenges, starting with a productivity that hasn't grown for about twenty years".
What differentiates the sector of the furniture compared to the others? According to De Felice, the greater dynamism of Italian companies compared to other sectors which is, in fact, at the origin of a strong recovery in exports and a return to growth in the trade balance surplus which, due to competition from emerging countries, it had been in sharp slowdown for some years. Since 2010, the international competitiveness of our Home System products – he underlined – has started to grow again.
Which ones are they strength points and which ones to improve? “Medium-large companies are growing more, investments in the digital economy have increased, i.e. in the IoT, the Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and industrial robotics. And there is a strong acceleration of the ecological transition towards an increasingly green supply chain. The most difficult problems to solve today are also linked for the furniture supply chain to the growing shortage of raw materials - and not just wood - and the equally growing costs of transport. The cost of transporting a container from Asia has risen from 2000 to 16-18 thousand euros. This means that the increase in costs from a problem is becoming an opportunity because the supply chain is being reformed, the value chain in Italy, an 'Italianness' which, moreover, the Casa System has never delocalized like other manufacturers, but which was affected by the competition from components and hardware made in Asia. And this too reveals a need common to this sector, that of a necessary change to strengthen the world leadership of the Italian home system”.
A wish unanimously underlined by all the speakers, Stefano Boeri, president of the Triennale, Gianluigi Venturini, regional director of Milan and the province of Intesa Sanpaolo, Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo, Roberto Gavazzi, CEO of the Boffi Group, Maria Porro, marketing and communication director of Porro spa and president of the Salone del Mobile. Milan and Anna Roscio of Intesa Sanpaolo.
