Official ISTAT data on provincial foreign trade, processed by the Ufficio Studi of Treviso Chamber of Commerce, confirm that, despite problems, Treviso export increased by 4.2% in the first three months of 2008 compared to the same period one year ago.

Sectors

We will take into consideration the first 10 export items as for sales, and restrict the comparison to 2007. Years 2007 and 2008 are still at “provisional data”, thus the comparison can be considered homogenous.

On the other hand, 2006 data are definitive, and marked up by ISTAT, as previously reported when the Reports were presented at the end of the year.

The furnishing sector keeps displaying a considerable dynamism in foreign markets: in the first months of 2008, export flows grew by 10.2% compared to the same period one year ago. This variation is in line with 2007 trend.

Household appliances marked an interesting 13.8% increase, after being stable in 2007.

As usual, industrial machinery ranked first, with a +6.3% variation as for export.

On a three-month period basis, this sector suffered a changeable trend, which probably depends on instability in job orders.

Footwear improved their performance: in 2007, this sector closed its year with a strong downturn (-11.4% on annual basis).

In March, sales in international markets got back to values of March 2007. On a three-month period basis, there was a considerable recovery: +63% compared to December 2007, which was partly due to the launch of new collections.

The clothing sector increased its exports too (+57% compared to December 2007).

Obviously, it was influenced by the period.

Export flows as for metal working are stable, if considered on an annual basis. However, job orders might have suffered a strong decline during the first three months of 2008, considering that export flows decreased by 20% compared to December 2007.

Exports suffered a slight downturn as for electric and precision devices (-2.5%), after a positive period from 2005 through 2007.

Food products experienced a two-digit growth. During the considered period, exports increased by 58% on an annual basis, from 67 million euros in the first three months of 2007, to current 107 million euros, in line with results achieved in the last three months of the year.
Noteworthy increases are registered by chemical products (+19.8%), maybe due to the rise in prices, by foodstuff (+9.2%) and the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products (+19.7%).

Good performances, though lower than 5%, were marked by electrical and household appliances, wood products and rubber and plastic items.

SPEECH BY FEDERICO TESSARI, PRESIDENT OF TREVISO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

“Positive signs were already highlighted by the business survey on the manufacturing sector, because enterprises in the territory kept marking positive results as for foreign orders, even though within a context in which the international economic cycle is objectively slowing down.

The growth registered in the first three months of 2007 should be cautiously considered, as data are provisional and there are significant differences among sectors.

Nevertheless, the trend is encouraging, proving that pessimistic hypotheses were wrong.

Furthermore, we’re not dealing with the usual exploit of Treviso province.

Other provinces within Veneto perform even better: Padova’s exports grew by 6.3%, and Verona’s ones by 9.2%.

The stableness of positive results is noteworthy, despite growth trends at both national and provincial levels halved compared to the summer of 2007.

At the moment, we register this 4.2% growth, but still being cautious because of non definitive data.

For this reason, we postpone discussions to the moment in which definitive data on trend variation will be available, being them more solid and based on more than a three-month period, though very positive".

Treviso, 16 June 2008

Foreign trade_summary table: 1st quarters 2006-2007-2008

Foreign trade per sectors_Treviso province. Data at 1st quarter 2008