The quarterly survey by the Studies office of Acimall, the association of Italian woodworking and furniture technology manufacturers, reported that the sales performance of woodworking technologies has returned to “a normal situation after a period of exponential growth of orders and turnover”.
In the April-June period this year, orders recorded a 17.8% reduction versus the same period of 2022, resulting from an 18.7% decrease in orders from abroad and a 13.8% decrease in domestic orders.
This result replicates the trend of the previous four months, all negative, and brings the general industry index back to 2019 levels, prior to the pandemic rates.
The wood and furniture technology industry can rely on an order backlog of 5.2 months, while the price variation from the beginning of the year – settled at 1.2% – is helping cool down the inflation that has affected this industry and the entire economy in the past two years.
According to the quality survey, 72% of the interviewed companies expect substantial stability in production, compared to 71% in the previous quarter, while 9% predict further shrinkage and 19% an increase.
“This is an expected scenario, but there might be a change of direction with the new Industry 5.0 Transition Plan, eagerly awaited not only by the wood and furniture technology industry, but by all mechanical engineering segments and beyond,” said Dario Corbetta, director of Acimall.
“The scope of this plan might drive the recovery of the Italian market in the coming months, or at least from the beginning of 2024.”
According to Acimall, these measures will offer new and bigger opportunities to act in two directions, namely further progress towards digital transformation and an even stronger and tangible green revolution of industrial operations.
