At the annual meeting of the Italian Machine Tool Association (UCIMU PER PRODURRE), Mr. Giancarlo Losma, chairman of the Italian Machine Tool Association, pointed out in his financial report for the Italian machine tool, robotics and automation industry in 2010 that in 2010 the Italian machine tool, robotics, automation industry Output value reached 4.196 billion euros, an increase of 2.5% compared to 2009; machine tool product exports totaled 2.604 billion euros, an increase of 3% year-on-year; machine tool product consumption was 2.467 billion euros, an increase of 5.7%; domestic market consumption 1.592 billion The euro rose by 1.7% year-on-year.

In 2010, the Italian machine tool, robotics and automation industries showed a strong recovery. The industry’s output value accounted for the fourth place in the world, and its total export volume ranked third in the world, reaffirming its leading position in the world machine tool industry.

UCIMU's research department data show that in 2011, the Italian machine tool, robotics, automation industry output value will reach 4.955 billion euros, an increase of 18.1% year on year, will once again consolidate its recovery momentum since 2010. This optimistic forecast is mainly due to the increase in the export of Italian machine tool products. Compared with 2010, the total export value will reach 3.185 billion euros, an increase of 22.3%.

In 2010, China surpassed Germany to become the largest market for Italian machine tool products. However, in the first quarter of this year, the Italian machine tool product export market in Germany had a very significant increase. In the first quarter of this year, the Chinese market grew by 13.8% over the same period of last year, while the German market increased by 115.6% year-on-year. The two major export markets in China and Germany accounted for the same share of Italian exports, which was 13.9 percent. The US market grew by 123.4%, India by 58.9%, and Brazil, France, Turkey, Poland, Switzerland and other markets all had different degrees of growth.

In the domestic market, the consumption of machine tool products in 2011 is expected to increase by 11.7% to a total of 2.755 billion euros; the total delivery of manufacturers is 1.770 billion euros, an increase of 11.2% over the previous year.

Mr. Losma also said that although the overall situation of the Italian machine tool industry has improved, but due to the slow recovery of the domestic market, machine tool manufacturers still have some concerns. The weakness in the domestic market has prompted machine tool manufacturers to strengthen their development of overseas markets. The Italian Machine Tool Association also introduced a series of measures to help companies.