Crediting international trade for the positive push, the OSI (Print and Packaging Monitoring Center) quarterly survey, conducted by the Assografici Studies Center, based its optimistic forecast for the paper processing industry on first half 2019 figures.
After a stalled first quarter 2019, due to a slackening in the Italian and European economies, production in the paper manufacturing and processing industry spiked an improvement in the trend and in sales. Compared to the first half of 2018, the same period in 2019 experienced a dip in production (-0.7%), but turnover was up by 2.8%. Driving those trends were the food & beverage sector, up 2.2%, and cosmetics and perfume (+3% based on Cosmetica Italia data), while the pharmaceutical industry lagged (-0.3%) compared to 2018 levels which were, however, high.
There was also a surge in exports in value, with an overall increase of 3.5% in the first half. On the whole, the export trend is clearly auspicious.
Forecasts by the OSI panel for the third quarter of 2019 point to a slight drop in production, sales and domestic orders, while overseas orders remain stable.
Source: Italia Grafica
