Italy

This is a period of strong turbulence both inside and outside the Italian market. There are many developments exercising the minds of domestic scrap operators; in the automotive sector, for example, some 500 voluntary exits are expected from car manufacturer Stellantis’ plant in Melfi, to add to the 350 already from two plants in Campania. There could be even more soon as the conversion project into a gigafactory seems to be at a standstill.

The negative data coming out over the last few months from Melfi, one of the plants with the greatest losses in terms of volumes, are weighing heavily. During the first quarter of this year, production fell below 10,000 cars (-64.6%) as part of a decline that has proved unstoppable for years. Its employee numbers could slide below 5000 despite new models being in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, retail sales in Italy recorded a 0.5% month-on-month decline in March both in terms of absolute value and volume. According to Istat, food products registered drops of 0.5% in value and 0.9% in volume, while the respective decreases for non-food products were 0.3% and 0.4%. When compared to March 2024, the declines were even more significant: 2.8% in value and 4.2% in volume. Expectations are also negative with regard to the quarterly data.

Finally, demographic projections indicate that, within the next 10 years, Italy’s working-age population will decrease by 7.8%, or 2.908 million. At the beginning of 2025, this grouping encompassed 37.3 million people but, by 2035, the number is expected to drop to 34.4 million owing to the progressive ageing of the population.