A rosy year for Italian household appliances, the one that has just passed: exports in the EMU area registered an almost 10% growth.The performance, however, does not concern the whole sector and all European countries. If the analysis becomes subtler, the cooking apparels division makes the best performances within the sector. This division has registered values that have grown very quickly in all European countries – except for Germany and Austria. Even small appliances exports are expanding, except in Belgium, where they are strongly stationary.
The year just passed has meant an important passing of the buck for the foreign market for the Italian household appliance: France has taken from Germany the primate in imports of made in Italy products.
France, which has always represented a privileged output for this industrial division, thus becomes the first country for exports; especially as far as cooking apparels are concerned, also large appliances and the heating sector.
As far as Germany is concerned, despite the slight loss of shares by Italian producers, the German one represents an excellent market for the made in Italy appliance. The attention of Germans is now focused on the small household appliances, a segment for which Germany remains the first destination country for Italian exports. On the basis of last year’s figures, forecasts for the next two years are more cautious: Italian exports of large appliances, cooking and heating in Germany should remain under 3% against the average over 5% of other European countries.
Another country that has registered a relatively substantial expansion in Italian appliance exports is Spain. In 2000 the Spanish market has grown very quickly, probably driven forward by a renewal process of domestic furnishings which, started in the years of economic takeoff in this country, it only just starts to show the first hiccups: forecasts are of a slowdown of Spanish family spending for the purchase of home appliances in the next few years.
