The Italian footwear industry has recorded a decline for the first nine months of 2024. Declines in exports were -9.2 per cent in value compared to the same period in 2023, with a sharp reduction in orders, which had heavy repercussions on production activity -18.9 per cent Istat index of industrial production and turnover was -9.7 per cent.
This is according to the latest data from the Confindustria Accessori Moda Study Center for Assocalzaturifici, which shows how the effect of the Covid pandemic saw a rebound in 2023 but then negative value in 2024.
“In the third quarter of 2024 there was no turnaround in the sector’s economic situation,” explained Giovanna Ceolini, President of Assocalzaturifici. “On the contrary, more than 60 per cent of companies closed with turnover below the levels achieved in the same period of 2023, with reductions of more than -20 per cent for one out of five companies. The cumulative data for the first nine months therefore confirms the difficulties that had already emerged in the first part of the year.
“The reflective performance of many major international economies, in Europe and outside the EU, and a geopolitical context that is anything but favourable, have severely penalised footwear exports in 2024. If in the European Union sales show fairly moderate declines (-2.6 per cent in value overall, with -2 per cent in France and -6.2 percent in Germany), on non-EU markets the drop is -15.3 per cent.”
In detail, the report shows how, with reference to foreign demand, the trend is unfavourable for all product segments, with the sole exception of shoes with rubber uppers, where exports grew by +8.2 per cent in volume and +1.3 per cent in value.
On the other hand, shoes with leather uppers – which have always been characteristic of Italian production and cover 65 per cent of foreign sales in value – recorded contractions of -7.1 per cent in quantity and -8.2 per cent in value.
Examining the markets, EU partners overall show less penalising dynamics than those related to non-EU countries. Among the latter, positive signals have come from China, Hong Kong and especially the United Arab Emirates – all seeing increases in both volume and value.
Finally, the prolongation of the unfavourable economic phase resulted in negative balances in the first nine months of 2024, compared to the close of 2023, in the figures for the birth-mortality of companies (-144 active shoe factories, equal to -4 per cent) and employment (which showed a decrease of -2.619 employees, equal to -3.6 per cent), as well as a surge in the use of wage supplementation tools: in the leather industry, the authorised hours of layoffs rose to 26 million (a +139.4 per cent), which is more than 4.5 times those granted in the same pre-Covid 2019 period.
