Thousands of SME's and a relevant foreign presence

Chemical industry in Italy is characterised by the well balanced presence of three different actors, all of them playing a very important role: Italian SMEs, Italian medium and large companies and foreign owned companies.

SMEs play a very important role in many European countries but their presence is particularly important in Italy where they account for 41% of the total value of  production. Such companies are active especially in fine and specialty chemicals where scale economies are not very relevant and the key of success often consists in offering to customers tailor made products.

Foreign owned companies producing in Italy are more than 200, employ about 34 thousand workers and represent 37% of the whole Italian chemical production value. With a value of 6.6 billion Euros they account for 41% of total exports of the Italian chemical industry testifying that their presence in Italy is not aimed only at serving the domestic market and that Italy is considered as a valuable productive base. Many of them also realize R&D activities in Italy.

Learn more on chemicals in Italy