Covid also sinks the excellence of Piedmont. Negative industrial districts for the first time



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TURIN. The effect Covid interrupts the growth that had lasted since 2016 for the 12 industrial districts and 2 technology poles of Piedmont and that, last year, had brought exports to a record figure of 11.4 billion euros. The minus sign exceeds exports for the first time, a real force of Piedmontese excellence, which contracted by 22.8% to a total of 1.3 billion. This is what emerges from the Monitor for the first semester of the year prepared by the Department of Studies and Research of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo.

The six-month trend was conditioned by a particularly negative second quarter (-35.9%), while in the first three months the decline was more contained (-8.7%). Overall, about 3 percentage points below the national average. Exports fell 22.2% to mature markets – Europe, the US, Canada, Japan – and 24.2% to new markets. The contraction of sales in Switzerland, France, the United States and the United Kingdom stands out. There are also declines in exports to China, Hong Kong and Japan.

As usual, there is a good resilience of the agri-food industry, although there are still sectors that creak, while the most marked difficulties arise for the Mechanics and Fashion sectors, with exports to more than half compared to the first half of 2019. and the Goldsmiths of Valenza have accused the slowdown in consumption. The sharp rise in gold prices, which depressed global demand, also had an impact on jewelry.

The mechanical sector (taps and valves in Cusio-Valsesia, machine tools and industrial robots in Turin, industrial refrigerators in Casale Monferrato and textile machinery in Biella) was affected by blockages in countries belonging to international value chains and by uncertainty that affects investment decisions. The Home system, represented in Piedmont by the small district of Omegna Household, suffered a 21.7% drop in exports.

The agri-food districts of Piedmont in the first half of 2020 managed to increase exports by 3.3%, with the most marked loss recorded for the wines of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato (-4.7%).

Exports from the two regional technology centers had a different trend. Turin’s ICT (communication technology) hub in the first six months of 2020 saw its exports grow by 2.5% (8 million), thanks to a particularly positive first quarter. For the aerospace center of Piedmont, exports fell 23.7% (112 million).

«I notice in companies a greater awareness of the need to adapt elections and projects to the current situation. It would be the right time to invest in digitization and green conversion “, says Teresio Testa, head of the Regional Directorate of Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta and Liguria at Banca Intesa Sanpaolo.

Resilience varies from one sector to another and the scenario remains highly uncertain and strongly conditioned by the evolution of the pandemic. “The trends – concludes the economist Romina Galleri – are different between sectors, but all suffer the effects of this crisis. Also with regard to the national market, many sales are linked to occasions that have been canceled by the pandemic or, for example for wines, are directed to channels such as Horeca (hotels, restaurants, catering, ed) closed due to confinements “.

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