The statistical analysis performed by Assocomaplast on foreign trade data provided by ISTAT regarding the first six months of this year, reveals – in comparison to January-June 2014 – a markedly positive performance for Italy's exports and imports of plastics and rubber machinery, equipment and moulds. The growth recorded since the first months of 2014 has continued this year and has actually increased: by the end of June 2015, the rise in purchases from abroad approached 17%. Sales outside Italy increased by 7.5% and the trade balance also improved. Such trend is in line with the results revealed by the latest sentiment survey carried out by Assocomaplast marketing department throughout the Member companies. The survey revealed a climate of moderate optimism, both as regards recent results – in July, 50% of the interviewees indicated an increase in orders with respect to a year ago – and as regards outlook, with 44% of interviewees expecting further expansion, and 45% expecting a consolidation of its turnover over the current six-month period. In terms of geographical macro-areas for sales overall, there was a notable increase in business from EU countries (from 47 up to 50%) and the NAFTA group (from 11 to 13%). As fare as Europe is concerned, there was an increase of sales in Germany (+19%), but also in Spain and the Czech Republic. As regards North America, the most significant result was the 36% increase in exports to the United States, along with the by no means negligible figure of +15% in Mexico. Encouraging results also arrived from Brazil, with a 17% improvement that induces hope at least for stabilization, in contrast to the reductions seen over the last four years. The further decline in exports to Russia (-39%), still negatively affected by the problems caused by the Ukraine crisis, comes as no surprise. Negative values were also seen for India (-24%), where Italian suppliers are finding it difficult to make headway notwithstanding the market's potential, and China (-15%), where there are marked swings in performance from year to year.
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