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MARKET OVERVIEW
Smaller but more technologically complex projects, with tougher demands regarding quality
and after-sales service.
Markets for industrial cables were generally stable or growing
in the first nine months of 2012, while differences within the
various business lines and between the various geographical
areas widened in the last quarter.
All sectors of this business area experienced more fragmented
and erratic demand, concentrated on smaller scale but
technologically more complex projects than in the past,
accompanied by tougher demands regarding quality and after-
sales service.
In fact, while some market sectors, like Oil & Gas, port
infrastructure and renewable energy, reported stable or
growing demand, other sectors, such as automotive, saw
volumes decline.
The Oil & Gas and port facilities sectors, which had already
shown clear signs of recovery from the second half of 2011,
reported increased demand, especially in high-growth regions
of the world, like South America, the Middle East and the Far
East.
During the second half of the year, demand stabilised at
the levels reached in the preceding period, even in the more
dynamic areas such as Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia
and Singapore) and Australia.
After growing in the first half, the market for oil industry
products in Brazil, serving large-scale projects, entered a phase
of stability in the second half of 2012.
Within the infrastructure and general transport sector, the
major European players adopted a cautious stance because of
poor visibility as to when to resume investments and because
of recent deficit-cutting policies in the Eurozone’s major
economies, while other areas of the world had stable demand
for cables serving port infrastructure projects.
Despite the restrictive financial policies adopted by the main
European governments which have cut special incentives
or made access to credit for wind projects more difficult,
the renewable energy market was stable in Europe, while
confirming an upward trend in other parts of the world. This
was thanks to the extension of regulatory measures and
investments aimed at generating environmentally sustainable
energy in developing countries. In North America, the
suspension of wind power incentives led to a sharp drop in
demand.
Restrictive financial policies have forced the ending of
incentives given in the past two years in support of the
automotive industry, leading to a decline in automotive
industry volumes in nearly every European country, with the
sole exception of Germany. Automotive industry demand in
the rest of the world nonetheless remained largely stable
relative to the second half of 2011.
