Leather Goods: Exports Drive a Positive First Half of the Year
The half-yearly economic note shows an increase in industrial production of +12.4% and 5% in turnover, supported mainly by exports (+17.3%). The gap between luxury brands and SMEs remains, and concern is growing over rising energy, transportation and raw material costs.
According to the analysis conducted by the Confindustria Moda Study Center for Assopellettieri, the first half of 2022 closed positively, marking a marked recovery in all the main economic variables, reflecting a prosecution of the post-pandemic consolidation.
In particular, there is an increase for industrial production of +12.4% over 2021 (remaining, however, significantly below the January-June 2019 period) and an average trend increase in turnover of +15%. Data that are supported by recoveries in the domestic market, which marks +12.2% (remaining, however, -8.7% below 2019 figures,) and especially in exports, which record +17.3% in value in the first 5 months, despite a significant slowdown, in volume terms, in April and May.
Dynamics on which the big luxury brands play a key role (as witnessed by the non-negligible increase in the average price, both overall and on some important outlet markets), which allowed to reduce the gap with the pre-Covid 2019 situation to -1% in terms of volume, and to exceed it by 4.4% in value.
Bags are the best-selling product (they cover more than 2/3 in value) and show an increase of +20.2%; followed at a distance by small leather goods , with a 16% share, and belts (+13%), while luggage and travel items show less marked recoveries (+9.4%).
In terms of target markets, sales in the European Union are doing well (+17% in value); North American markets (U.S. +67% and Canada +81%), South Korea (+43%), the United Arab Emirates (+90%) and Japan (+27%) are shining, all already significantly above pre-Covid 2019 levels. The new lockdowns curbed, as widely expected, exports to China (-26.3% in value in the April-May two-month period, thus limiting growth to +3% in the cumulative 5 months), while Russia and Ukraine collapsed (-53.5% and -77.2% in the 4 months following the outbreak of the conflict).
The sector thus continues its post-pandemic recovery, but once again at two speeds: if the international luxury brands are running, many are the companies still struggling among SMEs. Then, one cannot overlook the alarming increases in costs: in addition to raw materials and transportation, high energy prices are putting companies' budgets at serious risk. Tensions are easing on the employment front, with a slight recovery in the number of employees and a collapse in the number of hours of CIG authorized; on the other hand, the number of active companies is almost stable (-15 units compared to December, between industry and crafts, -0.4 percent).
Source: FOTOSHOE
https://fotoshoemagazine.com/leather-goods-exports-drive-a-positive-first-half-of-the-year/