FLORENCE. The cold numbers of the reports Irpet they are almost boring if it weren’t for the fact that they trace, sometimes anticipate, what will happen in our lives and, above all, in our wallets. This is the case of the one on exports, developed by researchers Leonardo Ghezzi And Tommaso Ferraresi, which tells of a two-speed Tuscany. Not the classic one, however, of the coast and the hinterland. Here the strong sectors of our region are confronted in an up&down of results with the fashion sector which creaked throughout 2023 while pharmaceuticals, mechanics and nautical grew with double-digit percentages. A trend also confirmed in the first months of 2024 with the confirmation of a lot of uncertainty for the months to come. And an awareness: there are two handfuls of large multinationals who export billions and who influence numbers and related industries, making good and bad weather. And which are transforming the checks and balances of the regional economy.
In the final balance for 2023, a prevalence of negative signs emerges, widely distributed among most of the main regional productions. First and foremost, the specializations in the fashion sector suffered. From footwear to yarn, through leather products and knitwear, the contraction became increasingly stronger over the course of the year. However, the performance on the international jewelery markets was positive, which was also affected by the growth trend in the value of gold also recorded during 2023. Many basic productions are also suffering, such as chemical products, industrial products paper and rubber and plastic articles. The only significant exception among this type of specialization is represented by basic metallurgy products (+13%), driven by the recovery in foreign sales that characterized the Piombino steelmaking hub. Among the specializations linked to Made in Italy, there is also a decline in the export of furniture and products linked to the marble supply chain. A modest expansion instead characterized foreign sales of agricultural and agri-food industry products. Especially for the latter, however, the dynamics at current prices still reflect the inflationary pressure exerted on intermediate costs during the year, especially for the oil-related sector.
The positive contributions to the growth of exports, if 2023 closed positively for Tuscan exports, is largely due to the expansionary dynamics of sales of pharmaceutical products (+40.9%). Exports of the latter doubled between 2021 and 2023; even tripled taking 2019 as a reference. The dynamics of foreign sales of machinery was also very positive, driven by the performance of those for general purposes (+24.7%). Finally, exports of means of transport are also growing, thanks to the success of nautical products (+24.8%) and those of Sienese campers (+35.6%), and despite the contraction in exports of products of the rail-tram industry (-28.9%).
«We have witnessed a slowdown in exports resulting from external conditions and it is difficult to understand how structural or cyclical it is», says Leonardo Ghezzi, deputy director of Irpet and one of the two authors of the report. «Tuscany, having dynamic sectors, such as the pharmaceutical and mechanical sectors, despite having slowed down, has done better than the Italian average and other regions. It has maintained positive exports despite there being a very heterogeneous picture. What should now be underlined is the trend of leather goods which has always had excellent performances and which instead has a less than positive result. A worrying situation also because the choice of a large company, it has clearly emerged, can influence all the others. Pharmaceuticals has become an important asset and so, as happened with mechanics, it is now an important part of our economic supply chain, among other things with international networks that make it competitive unlike other traditional sectors which instead struggle to stay on the markets because we have to deal with countries that don’t give guarantees to workers like we do in Italy and that must be considered a value.”
Another element of analysis to take into consideration is also the destination of our goods. «Europe, the old continent, has an economy that is slowing down heavily», confirms Ghezzi. «An element that has always been a driving force and which is now missing while positive signals are confirmed from the Asian markets».
Tags: large multinationals Tirreno decisive
