Woodworking machinery orders: excellent results (second quarter 2007)

The trend is clearly positive also in the second quarter. This is, in brief, the analysis of orders received by the Italian industry of woodworking machinery and tools.

According to the sample surveyed by the Acimall Study Office, the total increase as compared to the same period of 2006 was 15.1 percent, thanks to a good trend on the Italian market (+11.9 percent) and foreign markets (+16%).

Some other figures: from January to June 2007, prices went up by 1.9 percent, while the period of ensured production, at the end of the first half of 2007, amounts to 3.5 months, versus 3.4 in the previous quarter.

The quality survey for the April-June period reveals that 57% of interviewed entrepreneurs (a sample that represents the entire industry for production type and company size) indicate a stationary production trend, 40% an increasing trend, and 3% only a decreasing trend.
Available stocks are stationary according to 70%, decreasing according to 10% and growing according to the remaining 20%. Employment is considered as stationary by 83% of the sample, increasing by 10% and falling by 7%.

As to forecasts for the next period, international orders will be stationary according to 53 percent of the sample, further growing according to 33 percent, and decreasing according to 14 percent (positive balance +19).
Looking at the Italian market, in the coming months it is expected to have a constant trend according to 70 percent of the interviewees, a rally for 13 percent and a shrinkage for the remaining 17 percent (negative balance, -4).