One of the most important items in the national accounts is the trade balance and its balance. The trade balance is the difference between the imports and the exportsand allows an assessment of a country's ability to import or express adequate domestic demand.
According to a May 2023 statistic on the import/export of Italian goods by theEconomic Observatory on International TradeItaly ranks seventh among the world's top exporting countries, and ninth among importing countries. The Italian regions that import and export the most are Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto, while the province at the top of the ranking is Milan.
Since 2009, both imports and exports have grown steadily. Currently, the most imported products in Italy are:
- Natural gas;
- Basic chemicals, fertilisers and nitrogen compounds, plastics and synthetic rubber in primary forms;
- Motor vehicles;
- Crude oil;
- Medicines and pharmaceutical preparations;
- Precious base metals and other non-ferrous metals, nuclear fuels;
- Steel products;
- Articles of clothing, excluding fur clothing;
- General purpose machines;
- Products derived from oil refining;
- General purpose machines (ovens, portable power tools, etc.);
- Telecommunications equipment;
- Parts and accessories for motor vehicles and their engines;
- Products of non-perennial agricultural crops;
- Electricity.
With the passage of time, our country's vocation for processing raw materials has not changed, but the import volumesi have suffered large variations. Companies have to adapt to ever-changing market conditions, changing their strategies according to market needs. L'only slowdown that has occurred in the last 20 years was due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the 2020.
The international market is becoming more and more complex, which is why it is a good idea to rely on experts in the field who are able to correctly handle all the details for the transport and shipment of goods on a European and international level.
The ITS Import-Export Course aims to train professionals in the management and organisation of shipments, document procedures, intermodal transport and logistics services using new information systems.
What is not worth importing into Italy
According to data from the Economic Observatory on International Trade, the normalised balance of trade in the period January-March 2023 closes with a figure of 1.7. The import-export activities are thus balanced with each other.
In the previous paragraph, we talked about which are the main products and goods that Italy imports, so what is more advantageous to import into our country given the high market demand. However, in order to be able to best handle the international market, it is also necessary to be up-to-date on the Italy's main exports, i.e. on what it is not worth importing given the production surplus that allows goods to be placed and sold on the international market.
I main products exported from ItalyAccording to the ranking based on 2023 data, they are:
- Medicines and pharmaceutical preparations;
- General purpose machines (ovens, lifting machines, office machines, etc.);
- General purpose machines;
- Articles of clothing, excluding fur clothing;
- Motor vehicles;
- Special purpose machinery (metallurgy, mining, quarrying, construction machinery, etc.);
- Products derived from oil refining;
- Basic chemicals, fertilisers and nitrogen compounds, plastics and synthetic rubber in primary forms;
- Parts and accessories for motor vehicles and their engines;
- Precious base metals and other non-ferrous metals, nuclear fuels;
- Plastic articles;
- Tanned and processed leather; travel goods, bags, leather goods and saddlery; prepared and dyed furs;
- Other metal products (bins, packaging, etc.);
- Footwear;
- Steel products.
In short, importing and exporting products to the international market is a job that requires great experience and constant attention to the trends of the period. Training is the first step in approaching this world.
Author of the article
ITS MOVE - Editor
