Agricultural machinery: good production in the Covid year
The Italian agricultural machinery industry closed 2020 with a production value of 11.5 billion euros, slightly higher than the previous year (+0.4%). The favourable trend of the agricultural economy at the global level keeps production levels high for a mechanical engineering sector that derives 70% of its turnover from exports
The slowdown in production activities and difficulties in logistics and international trade are not stopping the agricultural machinery sector, which is holding up well in the 2020 balance.
This positive result is due to the favourable performance of agriculture, which maintained good production levels even in the year of the pandemic, especially of grains (+1.9%), recording an increase in added value of 1.5%.
Figures on Italian agricultural machinery production - processed by FederUnacoma and released during the Annual General Meeting - show a slight drop in quantity for tractors (48 thousand units produced, down 6% on the previous year) and a 2.6% increase in turnover, which stands at 1.78 billion euros.
With regard to all operating machinery and equipment, 2020 closes with a production by weight of 648 thousand tonnes, for a value of 5.13 billion, a decrease of 2% compared to 2019. The production of incomplete tractors and parts amounts to almost 901 thousand tonnes, for a value of 934 thousand euros, essentially in line with the previous year
(-0.2%).
To this turnover we must add the value of the production of components, estimated at 2.8 billion euros (+1.6%) and machinery and equipment for gardening and landscaping, which reach 850 million euros with a sharp increase over 2019 (+9%). The total value of Italian production is estimated at 11.5 billion euros, which corresponds to a slight increase (+0.4%) over the previous year, a figure that the Federation of Italian Manufacturers considers comforting, also because it is associated with a good performance of exports in a year characterized by difficulties also in the transport and storage of goods.
ISTAT data on foreign trade relating to tractors, incomplete tractors and parts, and other agricultural machinery indicate a value of almost 5.2 billion euros, essentially in line (-0.7%) with the result for the previous year. The share of production for export is 70% by value, a very high percentage that confirms the international vocation of this sector of Italian mechanics.
