Italy Trade, Exports and Imports

Italy trade is dominated by automobiles and machineries. As the country is challenged by mountainous land, cultivation is not possible. Based on the same reason, the Italian trade depends on mostly on the manufacturing sector. World over, Italy’s famous brands such as Armani, Valentino, Versace, Benetton, Prada, FIAT, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Lamborghini have already created their niche in the global trade scene.
Italy Trade: Exports

Recession decreases the global trade volume significantly and Italy was no exception. Its exports volume decreased from $546.9 billion (2008) to $369 billion in 2009. However, even with such a huge decline, the country remained relatively stronger and ranked 8th in the world in terms of the exports volume.



The main exported commodities include:

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      Engineering products
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      Textiles and clothing
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      Production machinery
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      Motor vehicles
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      Transport equipment
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      Chemicals
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      Food
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      Beverages and tobacco
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      Minerals and nonferrous metals



Italy’s main export partners are:

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      Germany
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      France
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      Spain
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      US
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      UK

The graph below shows how the different partners contributed to the total volume (in percentage):

Italy: Import Partners, 2009


Italy Trade: Imports

The imports dipped as well with the recession marred years. The figures dropped from $546.9 billion of 2008 to $358.7 billion in 2009. The country again ranked 9th in terms of imports volumes.



Italy imports the following commodities:

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      Engineering products
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      Chemicals
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      Transport equipment
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      Energy products
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      Minerals and nonferrous metals
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      Textiles and clothing
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      Food
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      Beverages
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      Tobacco



Italy’s main imports partners are:

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      Germany
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      France
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      China
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      Netherlands
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      Libya
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      Russia

Italy Trade: Energy Export

Italy has a high volume of energy production in its industry sector. For the same reason, it is able to export around 3.431 billion kWh of electricity and 667,100 bbl/day of oil. Italy exports around 210 million cu m of natural gas as well.  Through such increase in the energy production, Italy’s trade balance has come down from $78.03 billion to $55.44 billion in 2009.