2Q Results Depress Italy’s Machine Tool Outlook

The future seems to be getting less positive for Italian machine tool builders, as second-quarter domestic orders and exports declined sharply. In so doing, orders failed to maintain the positive results that closed out 2011 and carried into the first quarter of 2012. UCIMU, the trade group that represents Italy’s manufacturing technology developers and suppliers, reported a 20.6% decrease in orders versus the second quarter of 2011. Until now, strong demand from other countries had kept the Italian machine tool builders in growth mode. But, UCIMU has warned in recent months that slack demand from the home market was a concern for its members, and a dire sign for the country’s industrial sector in general. Now, the organization reports that its index for domestic orders shows a 11.5% decrease for the second quarter of 2012, compared with 2Q 2011. This result demonstrates a domestic demand weakness that UCIMU calls “a structural crisis of the Italian market, which has drastically reduced its levels of investments in production technology.
Read the full article...

News