Economic report

In the first quarter of 2017 exports of textiles rose by +3.5%. China (+22,1%) – aggregate with Hong Kong (+10.8%) – remain among the first markets for made-in-italy textiles. in 2016, slight decrease in sales, but the trade balance of italian textiles remained steady (euro 2.3 billion).

 

1. The balance for 2016

In 2016, Made-in-Italy textiles (including wool, cotton, linen, silk fabrics and knits) posted a reduction compared to 2015 (-0.9% on a year-on-year basis), bringing total turnover to euro 7.84 billion. Made-in-Italy fabrics closed 2016 slightly below the projections released last February on the occasion of the past edition of Milano Unica, which more optimistically envisaged a -0.6% decrease. The sector’s results were impacted by the difficulties of both the international markets and the domestic market.

Based on the above results, Italian textiles confirmed their leading role in the Italian textiles- fashion supply chain, accounting for 14.8% of the total turnover (see Figure 1); this incidence increases to 39.4%, when we consider only the upstream portion of the supply chain.

As to woven fabrics, wool fabrics still play the starring role, making for 40.7% of the segment’s total sales. Cotton fabrics represent 20.1%, knits 17.9%, silk fabrics weigh in at 17.4% and, lastly, linen has a share of 3.8%.