Italian footwear production fell.
According to the latest data from the Italian Footwear Manufacturers Association, Italian footwear production fell by 2.4% in the first nine months of 2018, including a 5% decline in the third quarter.
In the same period, domestic footwear products consumption was weak, with sales down 0.8% and sales down 0.9%. From the category of sales, sports shoes products are the only ones showing sales growth.
Italian footwear industry, which relies on overseas market, has slightly improved its exports. In the first eight months of 2018, although the export volume of footwear products has decreased by 3.1%, its export volume has achieved 6.5 billion euros of income, an increase of 3.7% over the same period in 2017. Pelotti, chairman of the Italian Association of footwear manufacturers, said the data also "reflects the outstanding performance of Italian manufacturing in the high-end sector.".
Despite the increase in export value, Italy's total footwear exports to the European Union market fell 6 per cent. The main reasons are the sharp decline in exports to France (down 8.7 per cent), Spain (down 9.8 per cent) and the Netherlands (down 13.9 per cent). In addition to the EU, exports to China (20 per cent growth in sales) and South Korea (11 per cent) have shown strong performance, while exports to the United States have also increased by 4.5 per cent. Exports to Russia were not improved in 2018, with Italy's footwear exports to Russia down 11.3 per cent in the first eight months.