Italian footwear production declined.
According to the latest data from the Italian Footwear Manufacturers Association, in the first nine months of 2018, Italian footwear production fell by 2.4%, including a 5% decline in the third quarter.
During the same period, domestic footwear products were weak, sales fell by 0.8%, and sales fell by 0.9%. In terms of the types of sales, sports footwear products are the only types that show sales growth.
The Italian footwear industry, which relies on overseas markets, saw a slight improvement in exports. In the first eight months of 2018, although the export volume of footwear products fell by 3.1%, its exports reached 6.5 billion euros in revenue, an increase over the same period in 2017. 3.7%. Pilotti, president of the Italian Footwear Manufacturers Association, said the data also "reflected the excellence of Italian manufacturing in the high-end sector."
Despite the increase in export value, Italy’s total exports of footwear to the EU market fell by 6%. The main reason was a sharp drop in exports to France (down 8.7%), Spain (down 9.8%) and the Netherlands (down 13.9%). In addition to the EU, exports to China (sales growth of 20%) and South Korea (up 11%) performed strongly, and exports to the US also increased by 4.5%. Exports to Russia have not improved in 2018, and the number of Italian footwear exports to Russia fell by 11.3% in the first eight months.
