Positive outlook

On the basis of Istat data regarding foreign trade in the first nine months of 2012, Assocomaplast (Italian plastics and rubber processing machinery and moulds manufacturers' association) forecasts for the entire year 2012 an outcome close the results for 2007 - the best year ever - with production on the order of 4.2 billion euro and exports worth more than 2.6 billion.
The Assocomaplast analysis points to substantial stability in sales abroad, which have strengthened their role as the mainstay of this industrial sector. Imports have recorded a modest increase of +2%, which is nevertheless impressive, given the prolonged crisis in the domestic market.
Exports evidence an increase of roughly 9 percentage points which, while somewhat less brilliant than the results of the previous quarters, is an encouraging sign for companies in the sector. The same cannot be said for the much more negative results recorded in other segments of the Italian machine tools industry. The results of the latest Assocomaplast survey show an increase in investment in exports for over a third of the member companies from the first to the second half of 2012.
An analysis of the export destinations for the sector reconfirms Europe in first place and maintaining a positive growth trend, as also seen in the American market. Sales in the Far East and Africa, on the other hand, are weaker, and in the Middle East an overall decrease is recorded.