Foreign trade in the province of Treviso - First half of 2011
Main results in the province of Treviso

During the first six months of 2011, exports from Treviso grew by 17.2% compared to the same period in 2010, that is, a few percentage points above the regional and national average. Sales came close to € 5.5 billion, nearly reaching levels of the first half of 2008, especially thanks to sales of manufactured products in non EU-27 countries: +36.1% compared to the first half of 2010, against +7.7% for sales within the EU. Therefore, the percentage of non-EU exports rose from 30.2% to 38.9% in the last three years.

Within the EU, however, positive trends were registered towards Germany (+11.7% compared to the first half of 2010) and some Eastern Europe countries (especially Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic).

As for non-EU countries, together with exponential growth in exports to China, some other markets recovered: the USA (+27%) and Russia (+28.6%). Nonetheless, while exports in volume recovered their pre-crisis levels in the US market, they did not recover enough in value for what concerns Russia: -17.6% compared to the same period in 2008. 

However, different trends have been registered for different sectors of the manufacturing industry in Treviso: machinery, rubber and plastics and the agrifood sectors have already surpassed their pre-crisis levels, while the fashion system, furniture, metal work products and electromechanical devices are recovering at a slower pace.

Export analysis by sector
Going into details about export trends by sector, it emerges that positive results were mainly due to capital and intermediate goods, that is, the technology manufacturing industry that confirms its position at the forefront of local economy.

The machinery sector performed particularly well, growing by 61.6% compared to the first half of 2010, and also exceeded by far exports in the same period of 2008 (+25.2%). The 68% of machinery exports went to non-EU countries. The 31% to China, where it reached three-digit growth: +205.6% compared to the first half of 2010, and ten times more than in the first six months of 2008.

The rubber and plastics sector continued to grow: +22.7% compared to the first half of 2010, +15.9% compared to the same period in 2008. In this case, the main target markets remained the European ones, where sales from this sector went beyond the 77% of provincial trade, especially in Germany, France and Eastern Europe countries.

The metal work products sector, which ranked sixth in export value within the province, remained below pre-crisis levels (-13.2%) even though it kept recovering at a good pace, showing 10.8% year-on-year growth. For this sector as well, the main target markets were the European ones, where it registered considerable growth in the UK (+64%) and the Czech Republic (+43.3%).

The other electrical equipment, seventh sector in the province as for export value, also marked good year-on-year results (+8.2%) but still not enough to reach pre-crisis levels (-6.9%). Over 78% of exports from this sector went to EU countries. In Germany, the first target market, exports returned to growing (+35%), reaching pre-crisis levels.