ECONOMY AND MARKET |
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Italian technology plast / April 2024 |
electronic ( and other ) components and the volatility of raw material and energy prices , from slowdowns in some global economies ( such as Germany , closely linked to Italy ) to increasing inflation and cost of money . While some commodity prices have returned to relatively acceptable levels , there remains an underlying uncertainty that hampers investment planning by firms , which is falling back this year and expected to come to a standstill in 2024 . The Confindustria Statistical Unit sees Italian GDP growing by a mere 0.7 % in 2023 ( thanks mainly to gains in the first half of the year that then began to erode in the second ), and 2024 could be even worse at + 0.5 %. The responses of Amaplast member companies to economic surveys covering the first three quarters of this year corroborate this climate of uncertainty , evidencing that revenues from domestic sales have |
contracted from one quarter to the next and at an increasing rate with each passing month . While revenues from sales abroad have grown , this trend showed signs of slowing down in the third quarter . The domestic market has also not been kind to these Italian manufacturers as regards orders , which remained significantly below 2022 levels in the first three quarters of this year . Again , while the same indicator is positive when considering foreign customers , the trend is progressively weakening .
SLOWDOWN IN DOMESTIC DEMAND In effect , the slowdown in domestic demand may be considered cyclical to some extent , especially after the peak recorded in 2021 , boosted by investment incentives . “ Precisely to address the challenges of the markets ,” underscored Massimo Margaglione , Amaplast
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President , “ it is increasingly important for companies to implement digital development plans , applying the models that will govern the future of the entire industrial machinery sector and revolutionize company organization , products , and services .” He added that “ Digitalization is now coupled with servitization , which not only favours and optimizes industrial relations – that is , the relations between technology suppliers , machinery manufacturers , and end users – but offers benefits in terms of sustainability .” Margaglione concluded by noting that “ Another new and rapidly evolving reality , one which companies are having some difficulties in embracing , precisely due to the ceaseless introduction of updates , is generative artificial intelligence , which offers application potentials that have yet to be fully grasped .” |
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