“Loose the knots of the future”, advises Italian industry association!

Acimall, the Italian woodworking machinery and tools manufacturers’ association has released another of its industry forecasts based on a look back at the last quarter:

‘A positive year 2018 that encourages to loose the knots of the future Another positive year for the wood technology industry, although the trend survey for the last quarter arises some questions that should be taken into consideration...

‘Again this year we can say that “...the barometer for woodworking and furniture industry machinery and plants keeps pointing to nice weather”. We used the same expression at the end of 2017, which closed with 11.6 percent growth over 2016, and we are repeating it this year to tell you about an excellent 9.5 percent growth recorded by production in the past twelve months compared to 2017.

‘All economic variables analysed by the Studies office of Acimall, the Confindustria association that represents industry companies, indicate that 2018 was another positive year.

‘Revenues in the fourth quarter 2018 were largely positive compared to the same period of 2017, with an excellent plus 19.2 percent; this figure has a significant impact on 2018 overall results, as mentioned before.

‘FORECAST SURVEY And what about the future? As already mentioned, there are plenty of hints that feed worries for short-term developments. Uncertainty dominates the domestic market after the reduction of fiscal incentives for Industry 4.0 initiatives introduced in the 2019 Budget Law, combined with the reduction of tax credit on R&D investments and the elimination of the super-amortization mechanism. Export markets are subject to the outcomes of Brexit and China-US trade wars. So, summing up, 6 percent of the sample believe in the further expansion of the domestic market, while 63 percent expect substantial stability and 31 percent shrinking business (the balance is negative at minus 25). On the export side, 19 percent are optimistic, 18 percent pessimistic and 63 percent forecast stability.’

Learn more at www.acimall.com/en