The year 2019 marked the end of the positive trend that was started in 2014 by the Italian machine tool, robot and automation industry.

Nevertheless, Ucimu-Sistemi Per Produrre — the Italian machine tools, robots and automation systems manufacturers’ association — says the registered decrease is very moderate and shows how the values of the main economic indicators are returning to normal levels, although it expects the slowdown to continue in 2020.

Preliminary data from Ucimu (www.ucimu.it) shows that production fell to 6,440 million euros in 2019 for a 4.9% decrease compared with 2018.

This result reflects an 8.1% reduction in deliveries by Italian manufacturers in the domestic market (to 2,860 million euros) and a 2.3% reduction in exports (to 3,580 million euros).

In the first eight months of 2019 (the latest available data), the main destination countries for Ucimu members’ ‘Made in Italy’ products were: the USA (257 million euros, +15.1%); Germany (236 million euros, -4%); China
(205 million euros, -13.4%); France (158 million euros, +17.6%); and Poland (120 million euros, -16.2%).

On the domestic front in 2019, the Italian consumption of machine tools, robots and automation dropped by 7.2% (to 4,790 million euros).

Ucimu anticipates that Italian industry will experience a further slowdown in 2020, with production falling by 8.4% (to 5,900 million euros), exports falling by 5.3% (to 3,390 million euros) and domestic consumption falling by 10.1% (to 4,305 million euros).

Ucimu says that the partial downsizing of the domestic market will have repercussions for both deliveries from Italian manufacturers, which are expected to fall by 12.2% (to 2,510 million euros), and for imports, which are expected to fall by 7% (to 1,795 million euros).