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Home > Focus On
Two new naval districts
Rome - (Adnkronos Multimedia) - The major part of the roughly 100 Italian industrial districts identified on the basis of their territorial similarity and their productive integration, has old roots, because they follow on with their productivity traditions, originally these traditions were often of an artisan nature, and dated back, in certain cases, to the dawn of the industrial age. However, some of the sectors cannot always respect this trend. These are the younger productive units, the ones that have become industrialised more recently. Among these, shipyards for the building of pleasure boating take a prominent role. This can be expalined by the fact that, even though it is one of the sectors in which the Italian presence on international markets is more dynamic - to such an extent to be the second in the world classification for motor-yachts, and unqualified leader for mega-yachts, Italian shipyards for pleasure boating represent a very young industry. In fact, the first industrial districts dedicated to this sector have taken off in very recent years.
Until the Seventies, the production of pleasure craft, also at the international level, was handled by small and very small productive units, mostly employing artisans. Perhaps the two exceptions were the big USA producers, Cris Craft and Bertram, but the latter was, however, taken off some time ago by the Italian Ferretti Group. In Europe and in Italy especially, the industrialisation of this sector was established, perhaps also rather unexpectedly, in the Eighties, with the birth and development of some major groups that are leaders at the international level, such as the above mentioned Ferretti, Azimut-Benetti, CRM, ISA. The need to exploit the territorial density and the productivity integration that developed around these new productive initiatives, brought to light the opportunity for setting up two new industrial districts for shipyards specialised in pleasure boating.
The first of these districts, formally established in 2003 and to be constituted under an organisational profile in a few months, is the one in the La Spezia area. This is an area characterised by a very strong density, where 22 firms are working in the area of seven municipalities all facing onto the Gulf of La Spezia. There are many productive sectors involved: shipyards for large boats, shipyards for pleasure craft, the production of nautical accessories, but also a sector dedicated to terminal activities and shipping agents. The synergy between these different economic activities, all situated in the large port area of La Spezia, has strongly developed over the recent years, finally giving life to an organised system of districts, and making it become a point of reference with an international value, also through the creation of SMART, the Ship Manufacturer Alliance Research and Technologies, the European seminar on naval technologies, now reaching its second edition.
The second industrial district for shipyards which is about to take form is the one in the Marches region. In this case, the main feature is that of a maximum integration of productivity. More than 300 firms, with more than 2000 employees, to which can be added around 5,000 workers coming from local side industries, producing sales of more than 700 million euro, all concentrated on the building of pleasure craft, with 80% of production aimed at foreign markets. The district stretches along a great length of the coast of the Marches, from Ancona to Fano and Pesaro, involving a great number of small local firms producing semi-finished goods and nautical accessories. The prospects for development for the new district, whose official institution is foreseen in a few months' time, are very promising, both with regard to its strategic location for the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, as well as to the development plans for the Ancona port system. By the end of 2005, re-modernisation work in the northern area of the port will be concluded, providing the firms in the district with new logistic opportunities towards further development of their activities.
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