Machinery: Global Trade back above 2019 Level in First Half of 2021

The second quarter of the year showed a strong acceleration of world trade in Machinery and Equipment for Industry¹: in the period April-June 2021 it is estimated² a y-o-y increase of 22.2% compared to 2020 and 3.6% compared to 2019 in euros.

The balance of the first 6 months of the year sees a consolidation of the recovery phase of world trade in the sector (which in 2020 had suffered a decline close to 8 percentage points in euro values), with higher levels than pre-crisis: compared to the corresponding period of 2019, world trade in Machinery and Equipment for Industry shows an increase of more than 4 percentage points in euros.

Up above 2019 levels tooling machines, paper-making machines, packaging machines, food machines and extrusion machines

Numerous sectors in the Machinery industry appear to have recovered and exceeded 2019 levels in terms of world trade value: Metalworking machine tools (+19%), Paper-making machinery (+7%), Packaging machines (+5%), Food machinery (+4%), Extrusion machinery (+2%) and Machine tools for hard materials (+1%).

Furthermore, the significant recovery from 2020 of world trade in Textile Machinery (+18.2% in euro values) should be highlighted, which is just 1.7 percentage points from 2019 values.

World Trade of Machinery: Year-over-Year changes (€)

On the other hand, despite positive signs respect to 2020, global trade in Printing machines (-16.2%), Metal processing machinery (-14.2%), and Other special purpose machinery (-16.2%) are still far from 2019 values.