Preliminary 2024 figures compiled by the Acimall Study Office show that the output of the Italian woodworking technology industry stood at 2.43 billion euros, 8.3 percent less than in 2023.

These results reveal how complex the moment that this sector is also going through is still, and how a sum of negative factors such as the uncertainties that have affected Industry 5.0 measures, the continuing Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, compounded by stagnation due to exceptional demand in previous years.

Negative export and domestic demand

Both exports (1.7 billion, minus 7.8 percent) and domestic demand (730 million, minus 9.5 percent) turn out to be down, while the collapse in imports (180 million, minus 40.2 percent) shows how the Italian supply side is best able to meet the demand for technology.

The latter fact supports the trade balance (1.52 billion euros, minus 1.5 percent compared to the final 2023 figure), while apparent consumption stops at 910 million, 17.9 percent less than the previous year. However, these numbers place Italy in the very first positions of the wood technology demand ranking both at the European and global level.

As Dario Corbetta, director of Acimall, the confindustrial association that represents companies in the sector, commented, “The situation is certainly not positive and the sector is suffering from a reality temporarily suspended first by the arrival of Covid and then by the incentives that have effectively postponed the structural problems of the sector for a two-year period. A scenario the contours of which are well known: labor shortages, delays in generational turnover and all those challenges facing manufacturing mechanics, not to mention geopolitical tensions that have inevitably slowed exports to some markets.”

High quality of Italian technology offerings

Speaking of exports, it should be noted that in the first nine months of the year, the United States (129 million, minus 3.6 percent over the same period in 2023), France (122 million, plus 22 percent) and Germany (92 million, minus 1.3 percent) topped the list of our best customers, followed by Poland (74 million, minus 5.4 percent), Spain (56 million, plus 7 percent), the United Kingdom (46 million, minus 28.7 percent), China (45 million, plus 16.8 percent), Sweden (38 million, minus 11.5 percent), Turkey (35 million, plus 21.4 percent) and Belgium (32 million, minus 13.4 percent). Definitely interesting is the trend of our exports to China and Turkey, realities where the production of woodworking machinery has definitely grown in recent decades to the extent that they are competitors to watch carefully. Added Director Corbetta, “Our manufacturers are managing to further consolidate their role in these markets, and this demonstrates not only the quality of the Italian technological offer, but how much it is precisely the most advanced technologies that make the difference, although in the case of Turkey the possibility of possible triangulations to other destinations should be considered.”

At the level of competitiveness in world markets, Italy continues to play a leading role: if we look at the ranking of the main exporting countries for wood and furniture technologies in the periodomanda interna.o January-September 2024, it is China that confirms its first place, with exports worth 1,827 million euros, 7.2 percent more than in the same period 2023. In second place is Germany (1,807 million, minus 12.4 percent) and in third place is Italy (1,138 million, minus 7.6 percent).

Germany, China and India top suppliers to Italy

On the subject of imports, it should be added that, at the global level, the United States was the best customer of the world's suppliers, purchasing woodworking machinery and equipment abroad to the tune of 1,782 million euros, 0.8 percent less than in the first nine months of 2023. In second place was Germany (635 million in cross-border purchases, down 8.2 percent), followed by Canada (486 million, plus 8.4 percent).

Among Italy's top suppliers, again in the January-September 2024 period, Germany ranks first with 48 million (minus 48.5 percent), followed by China (23 million, minus 7 percent) and India (9 million, minus 49.8 percent).