The manufacturing and technological industry is growing in Lazio, exports have doubled in the last 16 years

The manufacturing and technological industry is growing in Lazio, while regional exports have almost doubled in the last 16 years, with a slight decline in 2023. This is what emerges from the research on industrial districts and technological hubs in Lazio carried out by the Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo and presented this afternoon at the Luigi Sturzo Institute, in Rome. The Lazio region presents a high specialization in advanced sectors, in particular in pharmaceuticals, aerospace, electronics, but also in more traditional sectors, such as food, building materials, printing products, detergents and cosmetics. All these sectors present, in the Lazio region, a percentage of regional manufacturing workers much higher than the Italian average: over 5 times the national incidence for pharmaceuticals and aerospace, approximately double for printing, for detergents and cosmetics and for materials for construction.

Precisely around some of these specializations, three technological centers with high hi-tech content have developed in the region: the Pharmaceutical and Aerospace Center of Lazio and the Roman Ict, to which are added the industrial ceramic district of Civita Castellana and that of Agro-Pontine fruit and vegetables, all monitored by the Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo. There is also a high presence of innovative start-ups in the region: Lazio is in second place in Italy in terms of number, with around 1,600 innovative start-ups in April 2024, after Lombardy which has over 3,400. It was he who opened the proceedings Roberto Gabrielliregional director Lazio and Abruzzo of Intesa Sanpaolo while Giovanni Foresti And Rosa Maria Vitulano, economists from Intesa Sanpaolo presented “Strategies and opportunities for the Lazio economy”. Subsequently, a round table took place which collected the ideas and experiences of the entrepreneurs Salvatore Manfredi CEO of Fenix Pharma, Roberto Giacometti: CFO of Unidata e Andrea Del Brocco, CEO of Aerostructures. The meeting was moderated by Paolo Mussocommercial director for Lazio and Abruzzo Intesa Sanpaolo companies.

“The data are very comforting: they demonstrate the capacity of Lazio’s economic and productive system for resilience and the ability to react to the many complexities that occurred in 2023. Let’s not forget the two wars and an inflation that was still high in 2023 and rather high interest rates – observed the Lazio and Abruzzo regional director of Intesa Sanpaolo, Roberto Gabrielli -. There was therefore great resilience and ability to find countermeasures and openness towards international markets. We then have some poles that are making an excellent contribution. The agri-food sector, the cosmetics part, and let’s not forget tourism, given that we had over 32 million visitors in Lazio, of which 90 percent in Rome, and of which two thirds were represented by foreign tourists. The data is therefore positive, we must continue to invest and believe in it, in the next few years, if managed well especially from the point of view of the two important transitions, green and digital, we as a country will be able to have our say”, he concluded.

The evolution of the turnover of manufacturing companies, at the end of 2022, shows a full recovery of pre-pandemic levels: the percentage change, at current prices, plus 19.5 percent compared to 2019 values (median values). All sectors are above pre-crisis levels: the metals supply chain stands out in particular (+34 percent in 2022 compared to 2019), that of intermediate goods (+33.5 percent) and the home system (+28 percent). hundred). The unit margins measured by the Ebitda margin show good stability (7.7 percent the median value) despite the increase in costs incurred by companies, especially in the year 2022, during which historic peaks were recorded for prices of many commodities, not just energy: the incidence of net purchases as a percentage of turnover has in fact gone from 42.3 percent in 2019 to 44.6 percent in 2022.

Regional exports have grown significantly from 2008 to today, with values at current prices almost doubling (+198 percent), and a better dynamic than the Italian average (+170 percent). Although in 2023 it recorded a drop of 11 percent compared to 2022 values. Pharmaceuticals is the first sector for exports in the region, with around 11.5 billion in 2023; followed by metallurgy (1.6 billion), agri-food (1.5 billion) and the fashion system (1.4 billion). An important contribution to the growth of Lazio’s exports in the long term must be recognized by the technological centers and districts. Between 2008 and 2023, the five monitored entities went from approximately 4.5 billion euros in exports to almost 14 billion euros (+206 percent). European markets are driving: for technology hubs, Belgium was the destination that grew the most (over 4 billion euros in exports to this market in 2023), followed by the Netherlands (2.6 billion) which comes in third place the United States (1.3 billion). For the traditional districts, whose exported values are more contained, the podium goes to Germany (132 million) followed by Poland (30 million), the Netherlands (21 million), France (20 million) and Austria (14 million); we have to wait for sixth position for the only non-European destination, the United States (13 million).

In 2023, regional exports recorded a decline compared to 2022 values (minus 11 percent), mainly due to pharmaceuticals (minus 9.2 percent), but some sectors continued to grow such as agri-food (+ 3.8 percent) and detergents and cosmetics (+8.3 percent). From Intesa Sanpaolo’s research, heterogeneous results emerge in 2023 also for hubs and districts: the three technological hubs are falling behind on foreign markets (-9.5 percent for Pharmaceuticals of Lazio, -19.6 percent for Aerospace of Lazio and -13.5 percent for the Roman ICT), but also the Viterbo district (-12.7 percent for the Civita Castellana Ceramics); the only one growing is the agri-food sector (+14 percent in Agro-Pontine fruit and vegetables). “These are results that must be read in light of the strong growth of past years, and which are often conditioned by fluctuations due to multi-year orders (as in the case of aerospace) or by intra-firm exchanges (as for pharmaceuticals), in a year characterized by a marked slowdown in international trade”, we read in the research by Intesa San Paolo.

The Lazio economy can count on some competitiveness factors that emerged from the analysis. Among the sectors recording an increase in the number of employees, aerospace stands out, with over 2,800 more employees compared to 2012, but also other more traditional sectors, such as mechanics, including general purpose machinery (around 300 employees in more), metal treatment (+1,400 employees) and some agri-food chains such as vegetable preserves (approximately +600 employees), meats and cured meats (+170) and other food (sector which includes dishes ready-to-eat products, dietary foods and tea and coffee processing, and which has a total of 1,400 more employees). Added to these are ICT and the professional services sector for businesses, which are particularly widespread and expanding in the region: 190 thousand employees for the former, with a growth of 20 thousand units since 2012; over 263 thousand for the second sector and an increase of 64 thousand employed. Digital and green transition will be the driving force for investments for the future, as emerges from an internal Intesa Sanpaolo survey on business sentiment detected by fellow managers, in which over 300 respondents in Lazio participated.

On digital, Italy shows a good positioning in cloud computing compared to the EU27 average, and a potential for development in e-commerce. Climate change requires a change of pace, and green strategies are favored by supply chain relationships: around one in 10 respondents indicates that companies in Lazio are looking for suppliers who reduce environmental impact, with peaks of 25 percent for intermediate goods and 20 percent for pharmaceuticals. The topic of human capital will be increasingly central: Almalaurea statistics highlight for Lazio universities that among the students who completed their studies in 2022 (graduates, doctorates and masters) 3.5 percent (over 950 students) are employed abroad (given one year after graduation). Salaries, career and rapprochement with the family are the decisive factors for the return, which must also be favored to promote a faster generational change: in Lazio, 18 percent of companies have a board made up entirely of over 65s (14 percent the average Italian).

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