Refrigeration, a sector that is growing

Onwards and upwards: the refrigeration industry, in which Italy is a player of primary importance, is growing according to latest figures from the Research Office of ANIMA, the Italian Association of Mechanical and Engineering Industries, with associate Assofoodtec, whose members include Assocold, the association which represents manufacturers of refrigeration compressors and industrial cold storage equipment.

Refrigeration equipment for the commercial sector is performing very well. Preliminary figures for 2017 show that production was up +3.9% at nearly one billion euros (995 million euros), a “ceiling” it is likely to break through in 2018, as production rises a further 2% to reach 1.015 billion euros. Exports are doing even better, at +4,2% in 2017, with projections for 2018 suggesting that production will grow by a further +2.5% to 582 billion euros, which is 57% of total production. The main importing nations are France, which ranks top with 75.3 million euros worth of purchases in 2017, followed by Germany, the UK and Spain. The EU accounts for 71% of exports. The top non-EU countries are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in ninth and tenth place respectively. The decidedly positive trade balance is expected to be in excess of 600 billion euros in 2017.
Investments are also growing: up 8.8% to 27.20 million euros in 2017 and up 2.2% in 2018.
“Italian manufacturers,” says the category association, “benefits from its more specific knowledge of the world of food. This enables it to develop technological innovations which help it maintain its leading position on a worldwide scale.” So Italian firms enjoy a high level of quality with which they can fend off competition with lower labour costs. And on that subject, employment has risen – even if only very slightly – in recent years: the workforce grew from 4,754 in 2016 to an expected figure of 4,775 in 2018.
According to Statista, the world’s refrigeration market for the commercial sector will be worth 45 billion dollars (38.8 billion euros) in 2018, an improvement on the 42.2 billion (36.4 billion euros) recorded in 2017 and expected to reach 61.4 billion dollars (53 billion euros) by 2021. This growth is driven by growing urbanisation and the increase in the surface area occupied by large-scale retail concerns in developing economies, as well as by the increase in catering chains around the world.
The main world markets are North America, followed by Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.