April 2018, exports worth 973 million euros (+13.5%)
The second two-month period of 2018 again confirmed the favourable moment for the Italian construction industry on international markets. From January to April 2018, exports of vehicles and construction equipment were worth 973.3 million euros, an increase of 13.5% over the same period in the previous year. This result was announced by the SaMoTer Outlook, the observatory launched by the construction equipment trade fair scheduled 21-25 March 2020 at Veronafiere.
Exports
Analysis of the second two-month period – implemented in collaboration with research company Prometeia and Unacea, the Italian Construction Equipment Association – indicates generalized development for Italian exports in all the various reference categories: earth moving (+19%), road building (+17.6%), concrete (+7.1%) and aggregates (+3.8%), drilling and tunnelling (+10.8%) and tower cranes (+14.5%).
Outlet markets highlight double-edged trends. Historical markets such as Western Europe (+11.4%), Eastern Europe and Turkey (+18.7%), Russia (+39.4%), North America (+37.8%), Middle East (+18.9%), China (+39.6%), India (+22.7%) and Oceania (+10.5%) performed well. On the other hand, “emerging” geographical areas, such as Central and Southern America (-31.3%) and North Africa (-16.9%), posted a downturn.
Imports
In the second two-month period of the year, the recovery on the Italian market was also consolidated in the construction equipment sector, thanks to imports posting turnover of 300 million, with an increase of 22.2%.
This is a general expansion cycle that should continue to achieve two-figure growth rates through to 2020, according to SaMoTer Outlook forecasts. Going into more detail, the increase in domestic demand in Italy focuses on earth moving machinery (+9.3%), concrete (+87.2%) and aggregate preparation machinery (+24.8%), drilling and tunnelling machinery (+422%) and tower cranes (+49.5%). The only negative note comes from the road building sector, with a setback for imported machinery of 6%.
Imports grew from traditional reference areas including supplier countries such as Western Europe (+11.4%), North America (+66.1%) and Asia (+32.8%).