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– Assocarta, the Italian industry organisation of pulp and paper manufacturers, made a presentation to the economic committee of the Chamber of Deputies last month. Assocarta pointed out economic problems as well as structural and political shortcomings that have long plagued this Italian industrial sector. The organisation also called on the government to provide more support in finding solutions to the current situation. The association believes it is necessary to liberalise energy supply and transport in Italy in order to lower the cost burden on industry. Furthermore, it wants to see the introduction of incentives for investments in new production and energy plants. To spur domestic demand, the organisation proposes that tax relief be granted for expenditures on advertising and materials. In addition, at the meeting, Assocarta criticised the slow, inefficient bureaucracy as well as the lack of clear political programs that could help industry.
The organisation’s representatives stated that the economic crisis had had a strong negative impact on the Italian paper industry, which had already been suffering from weakening demand and increasing competition from suppliers in emerging markets. Since the end of 2007, nearly 20 mills had had to close down or halt production while the number of direct employees had declined by 9%. Although the general situation had improved slightly in 2010, the sector was still far from 2007 levels in both sales as well as production volumes, the association explained. Assocarta outlined the difficult situation experienced by the paper and printing industries as well the publishing sector, referring to data from the Italian national social security institute INPS (Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale). In 2008, companies registered just 5.5 million hours of short-time working (Cassa Integrazione Guadagni), but in the following year this figure reached 16.5 million and grew to 27.3 million hours in 2010.
In the view of the organisation, this negative development is not only due to economic circumstances but also to certain structural deficits as well as the lack of political decision-making. Assocarta noted, for example, that Italian paper producers had to pay up to 20% more for gas and up to 30% more for electricity than their competitors in Europe. This was due to the current regulation of the domestic gas market, which resulted in poor utilisation of the existing infrastructure and did not allow Italian manufacturers to access less expensive gas supplies from Northern Europe, the association said.
The association also made two other points with regard to energy supplies in Italy. The EU’s 2004 directive promoting cogeneration of electricity and heat had not yet been implemented in Italy although it had already been accepted as a draft law in 2007, Assocarta said. Furthermore, there was no possibility in Italy to energetically recover waste products from the recycling loop, it added. According to Assocarta, the incineration of 400,000 tonnes of residual materials with high content of biomass, equivalent to 725,000 barrels of oil, could slow the rise of the industry’s waste management costs. In all of Italy there was just one plant that was authorised to carry out such a process, Assocarta said.
The regulation of transport is another aspect requiring change, in the organisation’s view. Italy was the only European country that had a tariff-based services system and was thus suppressing free competition in road transport, Assocarta told the economic committee of the Chamber of Deputies in Rome in mid-July.
31.08.2011
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