The Italian packaging technology sector is set to post a 3.5 per cent increase in turnover for 2024, marking the fourth consecutive record year for the industry.
Preliminary figures indicate a turnover of €9.5 billion ($9.8bn), while exports are set to reach €7.5bn ($7.8bn), a rise of 3.8 per cent over 2023. Exports thus represent approximately 80 per cent of total turnover.
According to the Mecs – Ucima Research Centre, the strongest performances were seen in key markets such as Africa and Oceania (up 10.3 per cent), Asia (3.3 per cent) and the European Union (6.1 per cent), while Mexico (18.8 per cent) and Spain (11.1 per cent) demonstrated strong growth.
Although smaller, the domestic Italian market ended the year on a positive note with sales of €2bn ($2.1bn), up 2.5 per cent.
With 7.6 months of production already secured for the coming year, the sector is looking to the future with confidence, and forecasts for 2025 predict further growth, with revenues projected to reach €9.6bn.
Ucima’s chairman Riccardo Cavanna commented: “The technological excellence of our companies has continued to drive our success through 2024, a challenging 12 months in which the sector has once again demonstrated its resilience.
“Exports continue to be the backbone of the industry, but we are also focused on strengthening the domestic market, partly through tools such as the Industry 5.0 plan, which has yet to be fully implemented. The recently introduced changes to the incentives may also not fully benefit companies due to the limited time left to access them. In addition, the government’s plan to restrict Industry 4.0 incentives in 2025 will certainly not make the situation any easier.
“Despite these challenges, as an association and as a sector, we remain committed to promoting innovative solutions, particularly using artificial intelligence. Looking ahead, the forecasts for next year are positive and we expect to maintain the strong results achieved this year.”
