Italy is the third largest market in Europe with a population of almost 58 million. The country is the tenth most important market for Swedish sales. Italy has a fairly good economy at the moment and the forecast tells of an increasing strength during coming years. Despite all of this, Sweden is exporting a fairly small amount of wood to Italy. Only around 2,3 % of all Sweden’s wood export goes to Italy. This can be compared to Austria which exports around 65 % of its wood to Italy. The purpose of this essay is to answer the overall question of what impediments there are for the sale of Swedish wood on the Italian construction market and the market of wooden windows and wooden doors in particular. The results are based upon nine interviews with Italian producing companies and three interviews with Italian architects, as well as literature on the subject. The interviews were carried out in the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna and Toscana during two weeks in late November 2002. A view at the general situation for the construction sector in Italy clarifies that the cultural heritage and history concerning the use of wood is greatly different to that of many Northern European countries such as Sweden. Wood has played a more secluded role in Italy, with a currently low use of wood and a great improbability that wood will play an important role in construction in the near future. There is a lack of knowledge among constructors and architects on how to build in wood. The negative attitudes towards wood in Italy have been established during many years, and stone as a building material has shown to be conventional and highly industrialized. The standards for building houses that can withstand seismological activity are high in Italy. Architects and engineers have a more difficult task making wooden structures that can cope with earthquakes, than stone structures that can do the same. During the last years there has been a reintroduction of wood in roof constructions in Italy. Glulam plays an important role in this segment. There are a couple of fairly large producers of glulam i Italy. The use of glulam in Italy is however quite peripheral. It is therefore a market that Swedish producers probably would have a hard time getting a piece of. Wooden floors are being used more and more in Italian houses. The use of wooden floors in bedrooms has been quite frequent for some time now. Swedish species probably have difficulties in competing on this segment because of the fact that Italians seem to be more interested in wood that is harder and more durable. The Italians are used to stone floor and seem to want wooden floors that have similar characteristics. Pine wood is used to a fairly large extent in the makings of windows in Italy. There are however some impediments for the offset of Swedish wood on the Italian window market. The Italian producers are forced to be very flexible as a result of the lack of standards. There are difficulties in having a very production adapted raw material. The same problems are apparent for the door segment.
It seems as though mainly big companies use pine in larger amounts for window production. There is evidence of attitudes, among the smaller producers, that pine is not suitable for the climate in certain parts of Italy due to for example high humidity. The fact that many of the producers are small, local, and very spread out geographically creates problems of getting a good hold on the companies. It dampens the possibilities of effective marketing and good logistic solutions. Many of the producers buy their raw material from Italian middle hands. This is a comfortable arrangement for the Italian producers as well as for the Swedish sellers, but a lack of direct contacts and “business to business” are negative for both parties. The Italians are very keen on sticking to traditional concepts which makes it difficult to establish new, more effective ways for sales.
A common feature for the segment of windows, door...
