Italian yachting industry exports reach all time high
New figures released at the Genoa International Boat Show show that 2021 had the ‘best increase in turnover ever’ for the Italian yachting industry. Plus, according to the Boating Economic Forecast conference, ‘the boating year that has just ended ensures solid prospects for 2022 as well, consolidating a clear structural growth’.
‘Considering the economic and political scenarios we are currently going through – with strong criticalities on the component supply front, unpredictable fluctuations in prices and availability of raw materials, and an increasingly evident shortage of skilled labour – this is an exceptional result for our companies,’ says a conference statement about Nautica in Cifre – LOG, the statistical yearbook produced by the Italian Marine Industry’s research and market intelligence office.
The sector’s overall turnover is reported to have risen from €4.6 billion in 2020 to €6.1bn in 2021. The increase, compared to the previous year, was +31.1 per cent: a figure which helps to compensate for the drop recorded in 2020, and brings the sector’s turnover to almost the same level as during the record two-year period of 2007-2008.
USA leading market for Italian yards
One factor fuelling this growth is cited as the export of shipbuilding production, which in the sliding year ending March 2022 reached an all-time high of €3.37bn, with the USA as the leading market for Italian yards (€485m, or 16.4 per cent share). Other determining factors are said to be the order books of Italian yacht and superyacht yards, which for many operators even cover the next three years, and the excellent performance of the boating accessories and engines sectors.
“The Italian boating industry is highly appreciated abroad for its ability to bring together the excellence of the Made in Italy brand across mechanics, technology, design, furniture, and components,” says Carlo Maria Ferro, president of the Italian Trade Agency. “All this answers the question of why the sector’s numbers are so positive: because when demand picks up, people buy the best product. Export figures confirm this. In 2020 exports grew despite everything. In 2021 numbers increased by 34 per cent and in the first six months of 2022 they grew by another 72 per cent. We are satisfied with Italian exports and we are very satisfied with yachting exports.”
Italian yachting industry employee numbers
The total number of employees rose to 26,350, further strengthening the positive employment trend (+9.7 per cent compared to the previous year) that characterised all sectors of the industry. Almost half of the sector’s total employees (14,710) are employed in the construction of new units (up 14.7 per cent).
The boating sector’s contribution to the national GDP was over €5.1bn in 2021, a sharp increase (+31.4 per cent) compared to the 2020 figure. The weight of the boating sector’s contribution to the national GDP also increased from 2.37 per cent in 2020 to 2.89 per cent in 2021, mirroring the sector’s expansion.
Italian leisure and sporting boats exported to non-EU countries
Leisure and sporting boats are among the sectors to have recorded the highest growth in exports since the beginning of the new millennium. Exports in the sector have risen from €850m in 2000, to €3bn in 2021.
Total exports of leisure and sporting boats in 2021 showed the sector’s resilience to the negative economic effects triggered by the pandemic and amounted to more than €2.9bn, up 40.4 per cent from the 2020 figure. Non-European countries are confirmed as the main destination of Italian sales overseas. Direct exports to non-EU markets amounted to €2.2bn, corresponding to 74.6 per cent of Italian exports in the sector (compared to 64.3 per cent in 2020), while those to the 27 EU countries amounted to €750.4m, equal to 25.4 per cent (35.7 per cent in 2020).
These figures follow on from a statistical report compiled by the Research Department of the Italian Marine Industry Association about the state of the industry’s current year’s halfway point.
