Where do Italian household appliances go

The data about the Italian foreign trade of household appliances and consumer electronics highlight a very small export decrease, inferior to what hypothesized in forecasts.

Export

Italy is currently the fourth producer and exporter of white goods in the world. The two leaders of the respective continents, China and United States of America, precede it, while in Europe Germany ranks first by both production and export.

In the not very recent past, the Italian production surpassed the German one; then the growing delocalization towards low labour cost Countries has made Italy drop to the second place in Europe.

Despite the not good expectations formulated by experts at the beginning of last year, the Italian export of white goods maintained its positions in 2013, registering a negligible 0.2% decrease: an unexpected success for the Italian industry.

In terms of destinations, there was a slight decrease of the importance of European ones, both as 28-Country EU Croatia has recently joined the previous 27), and as European total. In any case, however, 80% of the Italian export still goes to Europe.

Among the main 10 destinations, only Germany and Sweden score growths, while the other eight are decreasing, sometimes slightly, sometimes relevantly, as in the case of Great Britain. In the list, on the contrary, Spain, in the past fourth by importance, today holds the sixth place, surpassed by The Netherlands and by Russia, nowadays steadily fourth in the matter.

Single non-European destination is Australia, while the first six European Countries go on absorbing about half of the total.

The stability of the Italian export is then due to the rising importance of minor destinations, spread worldwide.

In the consumer electronics field, Italy is not included among the main world producers and exporters. The production, in the past relevant, has been afterwards delocalized to other Countries, while on world markets the appliances manufactured in Far East have widely supplanted the European ones.

The Italian export of brown goods is then relatively modest and corresponds to slightly less than one sixth of white goods; in 2013 it was then affected by the 12.1% drop.

In addition, in this case Europe absorbs 70.3% of the total, while among the seven main destinations two non-European ones appear: Unites States and Hong Kong. In 2013, then, Spain, whose home market is living serious crisis, dropped from the second to the third place, surpassed by France. Romania, in the past at the seventh place, has instead disappeared as main destination, thanks to a sudden downturn due to the appearance of new national products on its market.

For some traditional Countries, like Germany and Switzerland, the drop affecting values is due to the competition of products coming from Far East.

Import

The Italian imports of white goods are constantly rising. In 2013, they came by 65.1 % from European Countries, with 56.9 % constituted by EU nations. Main absolute provenience is China, with 30.6% of the total. It is anyway worth noticing that the other Far East Countries, from Japan to South Korea, have very modest relevance, with percentages ranging from 0.1% to 1%. We can state then that white goods come either from China or from Europe. Germany, Poland and Turkey are the main European provenience nations, while, after them, the importance of Romania, nowadays outstanding producer of white goods, is rising.

The import of brown goods was on the contrary affected by a sudden downturn in 2013, owing to the not good situation of the Italian market. It comes by 81.6% from Europe; the main nations at issue are Poland (grown from the fourth place in 2012 to the first in 2013), Slovakia, China, Germany and The Netherlands. These five Countries represent together 72.3% of the total.

Prospects

The Italian export is stable in white goods, neatly decreasing for brown goods. In 2014, the situation of the first seems to be going to remain the same, while the world football championship might be a recovery factor in various markets for brown goods.

Import will certainly go on growing in white goods, while a new upswing is expected for brown goods just thanks to the mentioned sports events.

Italian exports of white goods (million Euros)

Source: ISTAT

Italian exports of consumer electronics (million Euros)

Source: ISTAT

Italian imports of white goods (million Euros)

Source: ISTAT

Italian exports of consumer electronics (million Euros)

Source: ISTAT