Further investment in intermodality could Significantly increase competitiveness of Italian industry, with peaks of 70% in Lombardy and 87% in Emilia Romagna. It is one of the findings of the sixth edition of the survey carried out by the Contship Italia Group in collaboration with SRM, which aims to bring elements of relevant analyses to increase the competitiveness of the Italian logistics. The survey, presented today in Milan, 400 manufacturing companies exporting and/or importing by sea with containers located in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, three regions account for about 41% of GDP and 51% of the Italian foreign trade and an important slice of their trade takes place by sea (28% for Lombardy, 33% for Veneto and 37% for Emilia Romagna).

While 55% of respondents support the need to further investments in intermodality, 64% of companies respondents also consider digitalization "very" or "very" important to your supply chain (61% in the last edition of the survey) and this percentage reaches to cover the entire sample (99.8%) if we add the companies that They believe it is medium-important.

Among the issues addressed, the survey examined the use of by Italian manufacturing companies of the Ex clause Works under which the obligation of the seller of the goods is limited to making its delivery available of the purchaser at its own premises or at agreed sites. The survey points out that the use of the Franco clause Factory continues to be very high and in 2023 75% of the companies opted for Ex Works compared to 55% in 2022 and 64% 2019-2023. This, the survey notes, It means less work and less development potential for young people. Italian logistics operators. The survey finds that culture of the Former Works in the enterprises is confirmed by the fact that whereas 61% do not intend to consider contractual arrangements alternatives in foreign sales and 23% would do so if there were A clear saving in shipping costs.

If the increased use of the Ex-Works clause means less work and opportunities for logistics operators, However, companies increasingly prefer to rely on Outsourcing logistics: the survey explains that in 2023 the number of of companies that preferred to have logistics managed outsourced in export operations, from 77% to 95%, and the same for import operations, with 94% of companies that outsource logistics compared to the 82% of 2022.