ACIMALL said its latest research showed the industry-wide decline in woodworking machinery sales had come to a halt.
The Italian machinery manufacturers’ group said the difficult period that the woodworking and wood-based materials industry was experiencing had been confirmed by second quarter figures and the recovery was still far away.
However, it added that the decline had stopped and the sector appeared to be in the middle of a stage of stagnation.
The quarterly survey showed orders between April and June were down by 53.8% on the same period a year before.
However, compared with the first quarter figures orders had fallen only 2.3%, with a 7.2% reduction from overseas, but 12% growth in the Italian market.
The survey showed 68% of companies experienced reduced production while 29% were stable and 3% experienced growth.
ACIMALL said the forecast revealed expectations of substantial stability, although a possible stop of the order decline would not lead to a quick recovery process. Widespread opinion was that the industry would not return to pre-crisis levels for some years.
