The mechanic industry in Italy

This characterization of such great importance derives mostly from its “horizontal” collocation inside productive chains: its production is often used by other industrial compartments, because it deals with investment goods for the other productive sectors.

This fact involves that the mechanic and engineering industry represents an important source of direct transmission of incorporated innovation in its products, and so the evolution of the whole national industrial sector depends mainly from the technological level of the various mechanical processes.

In addition, the mechanical industry is an anticipative indicator of the industrial conjuncture: its intermediate position makes it an important indicator of the wellness of the productive system in its entirety, because the trend of orders in the engineering industry can well estimate the inclination to invest of the industry in the various phases of the business cycle.

The engineering firms not only provide facilities, plants and equipments: in turn they are also users of investment goods, this way the technological push does not happen only actively, with the building up of innovative goods, but also passively, gathering and using competences and abilities and materials coming from other sectors, among which the electronic sector, computer science, data communication and used then in the field of mechanical construction. In some cases, the speed of technological innovation can lead a company traditionally operating in the sector of mechanical, to convert the production of new technologies; a typical example has been the Olivetti firm, historical producer of mechanic technology, when it saw in calculation of mechanic writing a revolution bought on by electronic, the Olivetti was forced to convert in a short time from a metalworking company in an electronic firm in all respects.

Given the multiplicity of mechanic processes, there are also a lot of application sectors, from metal working to precision milling, to assembly, to riveting, to the sanding. A machine shop is a very important place, where a lot of objects can be designed and built, objects that will be applied in several sectors. So it is very important that this industry remains strong, competitive and innovative, also for the development of many others industrial sectors.

It is just for these reasons that the engineering industry crisis is likely to cause problems throughout the Italian industry. In the last months a lot of enterprises have closed down and a lot of workers have been put in layoffs. The first sector to be affected is the small and medium enterprises, dealing with the delay of payments by the government and suppliers, the close of the credit, the decline of orders and the crisis of consumption. It is just for these reasons it was requested a further help from banks, often blamed for not giving enough funding or having too strict parameters in funding, especially in these times when it is urgent to relaunch the Italian economy.