Italian boating, recovery postponed until next year

The beginning of the year had boded well, but the closing is not as positive. We are talking about the data on the Italian boating economy 2014. And recovery is postponed once again until the coming year.

A light/dark 2014, as it draws to a close, for our home boating economy. This is affirmed by data presented by UCINA (the Boating Industry Confederation): compared to the expected +5.2 percent in revenues, we have to settle for a small +1 percent. Most striking is the difference between the budgeted growth in shipbuilding (+7.3 percent) versus the actual growth, which is stuck at +0.6 percent. In terms of overall sales, it is the accessories sector that is growing (+4.8%), confirming the willingness of owners not to give up modernizing their boats. Although small, it even has a minus sign in the motor world (-0.1%).

The only comforting data come from exports, but not, as one might expect, from Russia or China (the former has been affected by global sanctions against it, the latter has shown clear signs of slowing down), but from the Americas. Not only the United States(as we had been analyzing) but also Central and SouthAmerica (read mainly Brazil) continue in their growth. Also confirming this trend are the words of UCINA President Massimo Perotti:“Market growth is looking very slow and laborious, especially for companies that do not have opportunities to export outside the European continent.”

The feeling remains (confirmed, however, by the numbers) that what is holding in the world of shipyards is that of sailing, and the confidence we have breathed in recent months gives us hope for a more satisfying 2015 can be gleaned from the less drawn-out smiles of the operators. Next year, the Italian boating market expects overall sales growth of between 2.5 and 3.5 percent. With the hope that it will especially restart the instrument that generated the real boom in boating in the early 2000s: Italian nautical leasing (here you will find our analysis). A financial instrumentthat marked, from 2007 to 2013, a 96 percent decline. And 2014 figures are still missing, but according to UCINA’s numbers, the feeling is that the purse strings have remained tightly closed.