As part of the collaboration between Unioncamere Piemonte and UniCredit for monitoring the Piedmontese economic situation, Unioncamere Piemonte today releases the data of the 210th “Conjunctural survey on the manufacturing industry” carried out in collaboration with the research offices of the provincial chambers of commerce. The survey was conducted in the months of April and May 2024 with reference to data for the period January-March 2024 and involved 1,819 Piedmontese industrial companies, for a total number of 95,905 employees and a turnover value of approximately 62 billion euros.
The first months of 2023 were characterized by the continuation of the weakness of the cyclical phase. According to preliminary Istat estimates in Italy, in fact, economic activity increased modestly (+0.3%), held back by the contraction in manufacturing which was not fully compensated by the moderate growth in services and the expansion of tourism.
Extending the observation to the European context, it emerges that, in the first quarter of 2024, the growth of Italian GDP was in line with that of the Eurozone which, after two quarters of slight decline, also thanks to a partial recovery in Germany, marked a +0.3%.
In this overall picture, the regional manufacturing sector also showed a predictable slowdown; overall, in the period January-March 2024, regional industrial production recorded a decline of 0.4% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The President of Unioncamere Piemonte comment: “The trend of industrial production in Piedmont has unfortunately slowed down also due to the uncertainty of the international economic context. As a chamber of commerce system, we continue to support businesses in their growth path by helping them with new tools such as digitalisation and energy transformation”.
The weak decline of the industrial production (-0.4%) was accompanied by a still slightly positive trend in both internal orders (+0.6%) that of the orders coming from foreign market (+0.4%). The total turnover grew by half a percentage point over the same period of the previous year, thanks to foreign component which achieved an increase of 1.5%. The degree of use of the facilities decreased by almost 5 points, from 67.4% in the first quarter of 2023 to 62.7% of the period January-March 2024.
At a sectoral level only the manufacturing sector chemistry/plastic has once again achieved an expansionary trend (+2.7%), while the other specialization sectors of regional manufacturing have recorded stability or decline at a production level. THE means of transport (-0.2%) and the wood and furniture (-0.1%) they achieved almost no change in industrial production compared to the same period in 2023. Il food sectorwith a trend variation in the production of -0.4%, scored a result in line with the regional average. The electricity and electronics industries and those of the gods metals they both recorded one contraction of the production of 0.9%while the mechanics (-1.1%) suffered a drop of just over one percentage point. The most worrying performance concerns the companies of textile and clothing whose production decreased by 6.8% compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Analyzing the sample of manufacturing companies interviewed, from a dimensional point of view, a heterogeneous trend emerges between the various classes. The micro businesses (0-9 employees) have recorded substantial stability (-0.2%), small businesses (10-59 employees) showed a further increase in production (+0.8%) compared to the same period of the previous year. The medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) recorded the most significant increase (+1.9%), while large companies (over 250 employees) have suffered a significant setback (-4.7%).
In the first quarter of 2024, the performance of Piedmontese manufacturing companies appeared profoundly heterogeneous at a territorial level.
In the period January-March 2024, the only province that achieved a significantly positive trend change in industrial production is Verbano Cusio Ossola which, thanks to a good performance by metalworking companies, recorded a +2.0%. The performance of manufacturing companies appeared weakly positive Cuneo (0.4%), supported by the food sector and penalized by the textile/clothing sector. Manufacturing production was substantially stationary compared to the same period of the previous year Turin (+0.1%) And Novara (+1.0%)both supported by chemistry/plastics. Vercelliwith the textile/clothing sector in sharp decline and the food and chemical sectors growing, achieved a -0.2%. The performance of the other three provinces was decidedly more negative. Asti has undergone a 1.9% dropsynthesis of the decline marked by the metalworking industry and the insufficiently high growth in the production of beverages. Alexandria recorded one contraction of 2.4% mainly caused by the decline in production of the food and metalworking industries. Finally, the most decisive setback, caused by the performance of the textile sector, appears to be that of Biella (-3.7%).
