Piedmont's exports fall, car region relaunches on foreign missions

The crisis in the automotive sector continues to weigh on exports and the trade balance of Piedmont, which last year lost a position - from fourth to fifth - in the ranking of Italy's main exporting regions and closed the first half of the year with a further drop of 2.5%, while the Italian average recorded a recovery of 2.1% and the North-West area, as a whole, grew by 1.5%. On the other hand, the region is pushing the accelerator on foreign missions in key sectors such as aerospace.

In the month of September alone, nine initiatives are being organised by Ceip Piemonte, the Region's body that deals with the internationalisation of enterprises, four of which are dedicated to the Space sector, with dozens of companies involved, from London to Nagoya, via Toulouse. The month of October also opens with the mission organised in Osaka and dedicated to Space, where there will be a series of initiatives to promote local supply chains, as will also happen in Sydney, which this year hosts the International Austronautical Congress. In reality, the sectors involved in the promotion initiatives abroad, in addition to automotive and aerospace, are different. Thanks to integrated projects, work is being carried out on about ten supply chains, also intercepting interesting niches such as cosmetics or energy.

From January to June, Piedmont recorded - data processed by Unioncamere - a value of exported goods equal to 30.5 billion euro, a result that is the result of a 3.5% contraction already marked in the first quarter, followed by a somewhat less intense decrease in cross-border sales recorded from April to June (-1.4%). In the same period, the value of imported goods amounted to EUR 23.8 billion, 0.7% more than in the six months from January to June 2024, bringing the trade balance to EUR 6.7 billion, still in positive territory but down from the EUR 7.7 billion recorded a year earlier.

"This result, combined with geopolitical uncertainties, shows how crucial it is to support businesses in this complex phase," emphasises Gian Paolo Coscia, President of Unioncamere Piemonte. In the foreground, therefore, are internationalisation policies and investments in innovative and high-tech projects that respect the environment: 'Only in this way will we be able to enhance our strengths, such as the agri-food and metals sectors, which are registering significant growth, and guarantee a solid and lasting recovery for the Piedmontese economy,' adds Costa.

The automotive and transport sector remains the leading sector, in terms of volume, of Piedmontese exports despite a phase of structural difficulties. "The overall performance is marked by a double-digit contraction (-11%), which reduces its weight on the regional total from 23.2% in the first half of 2024 to 21.2% today. The drop is largely attributable to the collapse in sales of motor vehicles (-24.4%), against a substantial hold in components (+0.6%) and a modest decline in aerospace (-1%). Along with automotive, it is mechanics that is suffering in Piedmont, which, despite being the second largest sector in terms of incidence on regional exports (17.2%), suffered a heavy drop of 8.1% compared to the first half of 2024.