European Markets - Italy

The Italian economy is recovering after a steep fall at the end of 2004 with a low point recorded in early 2005. As in other European markets companies are tending to move their manufacturing plants abroad with small to medium sized companies favouring Eastern Europe whereas the larger 

The Italian National Federation of Electrotechnical and Electronic Industries, (AssoAutomazione-GISI) carried out a 2005 analysis of the market situation in the automation, industrial, civil and laboratory instrumentation sectors as well as the public utility and traffic networks. They estimated that overall sales growth in 2005 would average 2.5%. They were cautiously optimistic as far as 2006 was concerned. 

However in Italy official statistics do not reveal the complete picture because of the strength of the black economy whereby invisible tax-evading transactions take place. The magnitude of the problem, according to alleged reports of a confidential Inland Revenue memorandum, is illustrated by the figure showing that 46 of turnover is withheld for every 100 declared to the tax authorities. 

In another way Italy differs from its European market partners to the extent that its plastics and rubber manufacturing sector in Italy contains many small family owned businesses. These are frequently export orientated and keen to use the best available technology. 

One of Italy s leading plastics companies is the Polimeri Europa subsidiary of Eni, the country s leading energy company with around 71,500 employees and operations in 71 countries and whose preliminary 2005 sales figure was 74 billion with reported net profit up 24% to 8.8 billion. 

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We recently surveyed pharmaceutical companies producing antidepressant medication or central nervous system (CNS) stimulants for the European market. Approval for use of such drugs in children and adolescents is limited worldwide. Sertraline, clomipramine, and flu-voxamine have been approved for use in children (for some drugs down to the age of 6 years) for OCD in some European countries (the most wide spread approval being for sertraline in Austria, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Denmark) and countries outside Europe. Methyl-phenidate has been approved for the treatment of children with ADHD in a number of European and non-European countries (Novartis Health care A/S, personal communication). 

The world s largest cannabis resin market continues to be West and Central Europe, with the bulk of global seizures (71%) made there. Spain accounts for 73 per cent of all European cannabis resin seizures, ahead of France (9%), the UK (7% in 2004), Portugal (3%) and Italy (2 Zi %). Spain plays a key role in limiting the supply of cannabis resin for the European market. 

This article looks at the challenges involved in the development of anti-fouling paint for marine appUcations, and also on the use of additional biocides in the pairrts. It describes experimentation carried out on nine biocides on the market today, and discusses the results. 15 refs. EUROPEAN COMMUNITY EUROPEAN UNION ITALY WESTERN EUROPE... 

France is the largest EU pesticide market in terms of sold volume, accounting for 31% of the pesticides sales in the EU in 1996. Italy, the second most important market, is a far behind France with 16% of the European market, followed by UK (12%), Germany (12%) and Spain (11%). The top five markets, i.e., France, Germany, Italy, UK and Spain, account for over 80% of the EU sales. ... 

The preparations for war hastened the growth of Italian production, which outpaced the international trend in growth. Between 1931 and 1941 Italy s primary aluminium output hovered around 5 per cent of world production. Subsequently, when production grew in many countries as a result of the war effort, Italy s share settled down at 2 per cent. After 1950 the growth rate of Italian aluminium production continued to keep pace with world production, and in the new context of European markets it managed to hold a fairly important position, at least in the sector of alumina. Until the start-up of the Sardinian aluminium pool in the 1970s, this development depended upon the experience and structures that had been created in the inter-war period. 

STUDIO TAMBURINI Via P. Fomari 46, 20146 Milano Italy, 39 (2) 48704572. The European Market for Specialty Adhesives and Sealants. 

Significant developments with regard to plastic automobile bumpers took place in Italy. The consumption of elastomer-modified PP expanded rapidly in Italian, then in other European markets. Other thermoplastic materials, particularly modified polycarbonate and modified polybutyleneterephthalate were also considered for the similar application, but the elastomer modified PP offered same performance at a substantially lower cost. 

Hot Cold and CaldoFreddo are two European manufacturers of home appliances that have merged. Hot Cold has plants in France, Germany, and Finland, whereas CaldoFreddo has plants in the United Kingdom and Italy. The European market is divided into four regions north, east, west, and south. Plant capacities (millions of units per year), annual fixed costs (millions of euros per year), regional demand (millions of units), and variable production and shipping costs (euros per unit) are as shown in Table 5-14. 

A European apparel manufacturer has production facilities in Italy and China to serve its European market, where annual demand is for 1.9 million units. Demand is expected to stay at the same level over the foreseeable future. Each facility has a capacity of 1 million units per year. With the current exchange rates, the production and distribution cost from Italy is 10 euro per unit, whereas the production and distribution cost from China is 7 euro. Over each of the next three years, the Chinese currency could rise relative to the euro by 15 percent with a probability of 0.5 or drop by 5 percent with a probability of 0.5. An option being considered is to shut down 0.5 million units of capacity in Italy and move it to China at a one-time cost of 2 million euro. Assume a discount factor of 10 percent over the three years. Do you recommend this option ... 

European siting considerations are somewhat different than those in the United States. Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy were traditionally the favored locations for European CPI industry plants because of their proximity to the markets, cheap energy, and presence of a skilled labor force. 

Only 10 firms account for 75% of agrochemicals sales, while the 15 largest drug companies have a market share of only 33% (Stinson, 1995). About 85% of fine chemicals are manufactured by companies of the triad the United States (28%), Western Europe (39%), and Japan (17%). Italy, with 4.0 million litres reactor capacity and 71 manufacturers, topped the European fine chemicals industry (Layman, 1993). Recently India, China, and Eastern-Central European countries have gained a significant proportion of the market, as a result of the lower direct labour costs and the more relaxed environmental and safety standards. It is fair to state that the high quality of chemists in these countries has also contributed to this development. In 1993, the cost of producing fine chemicals in India was 12% below that in Europe (Layman, 1993). 

Tetracyclines have been marketed since 1984, and, since discovery, some first-generation tetracyclines such as tetracycline, oxytetracycline, and chlorotetracychne have been extensively used in livestock and aquaculture, besides clinical use by humans. For human use, the second-generation tetracyclines doxycycline and minocycline have been prescribed to a great extent, and indeed prescription of the latter has steadily increased in the United States over the 2003-2005 period (Fig. 1.7). However, each of these tetracyclines is less than 0.5% of all the other 200 most prescribed dmgs. Tetracyclines are also prescribed to a good extent in several European countries (Fig. 1.6), with the exception of Italy and Denmark where per capita prescriptions are quite minimal, that is, <25 prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants (Molstad et ah, 2000). They are also widely used in animal husbandry where daily therapeutic doses of 40 mg tetracycline kg liveweight are typical (Kilhne et al., 2000). 

Italy, for instance, reported that 41 per cent of its cocaine deliveries could be backtracked to Venezuela (up from 22 per cent a year earlier) and 14 per cent to Spain in 2005. The organized criminal groups of Naples increasingly control the cocaine market in Italy, although West African groups play an important role in northern Italy as well. Most of the cocaine entering Italy is for the domestic market (82 per cent). While the main European transit countries for the cocaine entering Italy are Spain, France and the Netherlands, there have also been cocaine exports from Italy, mostly directed towards the Netherlands (5 per cent of total seizures in 2005),... 

Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Likewise, the reserves in the USA and Canada are 17% and 19.1% respectively. Nevertheless, statistical analysis shows that European UGS have been under-utilized during the latest years. That s why it is recommended for operators to justify planning margins through cost-benefit analysis and other affecting factors, in the liberalized conditions of new gas markets. 

By the Middle Ages, the upper classes consumed alcohol in abundance, while the peasant population made beer at home. In Italy and France, wine became an important product in commercial markets and continued to be an integral part of the European economy throughout the Renaissance period. Home brewing was largely replaced by the commercial manufacture of beer and wine in Europe by the early eighteenth century. 

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