Italian Machines Tool Industry in 2023

In 2023, the world economy kept on growing at normal rates, in line with those of the previous year: the global GDP went up by 3.2%, only 0.1% less than in 2022. Expansion was very moderate in industrialised countries (+1.5%), whereas it increased at good pace in emerging countries (+4.2%).

It was a difficult year for international trade: after slowing down its growth rate in 2022, stopping at +3%, it went down by 0.4% in 2023. The drop concerned both the exchanges of raw materials (-0.3%) and those of manufactured goods (-0.4%). Because of this, the driving force of the world’s economies was solely domestic demand.

In 2023, the Italian economy grew only by one percentage point, however recording better performances than the major European partners. The quarterly analysis of GDP trend changes highlights a still positive first part of the year (+2.3% in the first quarter) and the remaining part characterised by very weak growth rates: +0.6% in the second quarter, +0.5% in the third quarter and +0.6% in the fourth quarter.

Even if slowing down compared to a year earlier, investment had a significant rise (+4.9%). In particular, investment in machinery and equipment (+6.3%) had better performances than investment in construction (+3.5%). Household consumption (+1.2%) and public spending (+1.2%) were not very dynamic.

With reference to the world’s machine tool industry, Italy ranked fifth in production and fourth in exports and consumption.

In 2023, the Italian production of machine tools, robots and automation systems amounted to 7,615 million euro, recording a 4.6% increase versus 2022.

Consumption dropped by 7.8% to 5,816 million euro, due to a reduction, both in the deliveries to the domestic market (-11%, 3,392 million euro) and in imports (-3%, 2,425 million euro).

The market share covered by imported machinery accounted for 41.7%. Exports were on the rise, reaching 4,223 million euro in 2023, i.e. 21.8% more than in the previous year. The export/production ratio went up from 47.6% in 2022 to 55.5% in 2023.

The balance of trade grew by 85.6%, totalling 1,799 million euro. The utilisation rate of production capacity was still high: its annual average went down slightly from 86.6% in 2022 to 86.2% in 2023. The order portfolio also showed a moderate decrease, standing at 7.3 months of guaranteed production versus 8 months in the previous year. Machine selling prices rose by 4.4 % compared with the previous year.