Amaplast-MECS Statistical Study Center presented data on export of ltalian plastics and rubber machinery production in 2023. It estimated that over EUR 4.8 billion, a new all-time record for the sector, was achieved by the ltalian plastics and rubber machinery production in 2023.

This is mainly due to a positive trend in exports, which improved progressively with an increase of 13% over the nine months (January-September 2023) assessed by the ltalian Institute of Statistics(ISTAT). In the same period, imports have increased by 6% while the active trade balance has increased by 16 points.

Overall growth in all main machinery types

Exports, accounting for more than 70% of national production for the sector, show robust growth with a positive trend in all main machinery types for primary processing.

Those with highest share of the total include the following machinery.

●Molds (24% share and +14% with respect to January-September 2022)

●Extruders (12% and +22%), injection molding machines(5% and +2%)

●Blow molding machines(4% and +17%)

● Machines for molding and forming (4% and +22%)

●Flexographic printers (4% and +18%)

●Machines for foamed products (4% and +40%)

Closer look on geographical data

Europe confirms its status as primary destination of products made in ltaly, with an overall share of 56%.

EU countries account for 45% and sales within this market show the most positive results: Germany (+7%), France(+23%), and Spain (+19%). Two EU countries have entered the top ten commercial outlets after a significant increase in exports: Romania (+71%) and the Czech Republic (+38%).

A robust increase in deliveries to Russia is also observed: +61%.

With a new surge in USMCA markets, satisfying export trend to the Americas is resulted (+24%), Mexico in particular,with the continuing ebullience of a number of South American markets, including Brazil, Argentina,and Peru.

The Middle East has also shown a rather positive trend on average, driven principally by two markets:Saudi Arabia(+107%) and Israel (+47%).

On the other hand, exports to the Far East have witnessed a sudden deceleration (-12%), due to the contraction of two principal markets- China (-15%) and India (-6%), as well as a loss of momentum in other prominent destinations:

South Korea (-61%), Japan (-47%), and Taiwan (-68%).

Although there is a contemporaneous surge in sales to Thailand (+140%) and Indonesia (+81%), it was not sufficient to counterbalance this slump as they have limited relative weight in overall equation.

Africa owns a boast of nearly a 6% share of the total. Sales to all countries bordering on the Mediterranean have in-creased greatly, while worth mentioning are South Africa and Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa,the largest markets in that region with values that have more than doubled since last year.

Economic and geopolitical challenge

There are a number of economic and geopolitical criticalities characterizing the international context.

Despite post-pandemic rebound, other negative impacts hinder the growth of industry, including shortages in electronic components, volatility of raw material and energy prices, slowdowns in some global economies, increasing inflation and cost of money.

Massimo Margaglione, Amaplast President, underscored the importance to implement digital development plans torevolutionize companies to address market challenges.

He also added that digitalization has now coupled with servitization, which favors relations between technology sup-pliers, machinery manufacturers and end users. Another new and rapidly evolving technology is generative artificial intelligence, which offers application potentials that have yet to be fully grasped.