In the first nine months of 2020, Italy's footwear production declined 29,4%, while footwear sales fell 33,1%, Worldfootwear.com writes, citing statistics from the Italian Shoe Industry Association Assocalzaturifici.
Such a depressing result is associated primarily with the impact on business of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the third quarter of 2020, more than half of the companies surveyed, in the course of the Confindustria Moda Research Center survey on behalf of Assocalzaturifici, reported a drop in turnover from 20 to 50%.
These figures coincide with the figures cited by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, which recorded a drop in the productivity index - from July to September - by 17,4%.
The decrease in the volume of domestic consumption in the Italian footwear industry amounted to 17,8%, the decrease in international sales - 20,1%, the decrease in production volumes - 29,4%, and on average by one third (33,1%) sales of the companies of the Association members decreased.
The first timid signals of a recovery in demand on the international and domestic markets in September (when the volume of exports and the volume of household spending equaled the data for September 2019) were instantly destroyed by the second wave of the pandemic.
It led to a further reduction in the number of active enterprises (-101 in the first nine months of 2020) and the number of employees (approximately 2600 people). Taking into account the component manufacturing industry, the picture is even more unfavorable, 231 enterprises were closed, 3453 workers were laid off.
The decline in sales was felt by the segments of classic footwear for men and women (sales decreased by about 30%), sales of children's shoes and sports shoes / sneakers decreased by 15-20%. The home shoes segment suffered the least, with a 7,4% decline in pair sales.
Italy's total footwear exports in the first 9 months of the year fell 20,1% in terms of quantity and 17,2% in value. From January to September, 127,1 million pairs of shoes were sold abroad (almost 32 million less than in the same period in 2019), for a total of 6,4 billion euros. Average prices rose 3,6%.
The export of Italian footwear within the EU (which is 65% of the total) in the first 9 months of 2020 decreased by 16,5% in volume terms (by 14,5% in value terms).
The CIS countries also showed low results (the drop in exports to Russia in physical terms was 25%).
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