Italian machine tool orders increased by 13% in the second quarter of 2011

According to the latest statistics released by the Italian Association of Machine Tool, Robot and Automation Manufacturers (UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE), in the second quarter of 2011, Italian machine tool orders increased by 13% compared with the same period in 2010, and the absolute value of the index reached 90.1 (with a 2005 is the benchmark 100, the same below). Thanks to the rapid growth of the overseas machine tool market, this level is close to the level before the economic crisis. However, the recovery of the Italian domestic machine tool market is still relatively slow. According to the association's research department, machine tool orders from overseas markets increased by 44.5% year-on-year in the second quarter, and the absolute value of the index was 102. In contrast, machine tool orders in the Italian domestic market fell by 33.8% year-on-year. In the first half of 2011, Italian machine tool orders increased by 16.3% year-on-year, and the absolute value of the index was 101.5. Among them, overseas market orders increased by 37.4%, while domestic market orders fell by 19.5%. Mr. Giancarlo Losma, chairman of the association, said that according to the quarterly report, the recovery of the Italian machine tool industry since 2010 has continued, and the output value of Italian machine tool manufacturers has also begun to approach the level before the economic crisis. However, he also expressed concern that the gap between the number of orders from overseas markets and the number of orders from the domestic market continued to widen, not only because of the weak domestic market demand, but also because Italian machine tool manufacturers gave priority to overseas customer needs. This also has a certain adverse impact on the domestic market.