Sicily runs on oil, at least abroad. In the first half of 2022, over 65 percent of Sicilian exports derive from crude oil, for a value of 5.3 billion out of a total of 8.1 billion. The island does better than the rest of Italy, and by a lot. Foreign sales of petroleum products grew by 78 percent compared to the same period in 2021, against an average of 22.5 percent in the rest of the country. This is what emerges from the report “Sace for Sicily: exports and greens”, which elaborates data from Istat, the national statistical institute. The results of the island are due above all to Syracuse and its petrochemical pole, under the spotlight for the risk of closure of the Isab plant in Priolo. Excluding oil, however, the first province for exports is Catania, with over one billion in turnover. At a national level, Sicily is the tenth region for exports, in a ranking led by Lombardy (about 80 billion), Emilia-Romagna and Veneto (over 40 billion).
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The comparison between Region and Country
As far as exports are concerned, the Sace report states, “the intense growth in Sicily is driven by the rise in refined products”, but the other commercial sectors are also “growing above the national average”. As mentioned, the island’s oil exports broke through the five billion mark, improving on the 2020 trend, when it had reached 10.5 billion, almost 40 percent more than in 2020. A higher growth than the Italian one, which l last year, with 516 billion, it had grown “only” by 18 percent. As far as non-oil products are concerned, the first half of 2022 marks a growth in Sicilian exports of 26 percent with almost three billion euros, while the Italian average stops at 20.5 percent, with almost 95 billion. The Sicilian data improves those of 2021, when the island had exported 4.6 billion of “non-oil” products, 13 percent more than in 2020. In the same period, Italy exported goods for 502 billion, the 17 percent more than in 2020.
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Growing (and Losing) Sectors
In detail, Sicilian exports grow by 140 percent for unprocessed oil, and by 128 percent for refined products. Crude oil is by far the sector with the best data, but according to Sace “large increases are widespread in most of the export sectors of the Region”. In fact, sales abroad of wood, paper and printing (117 per cent), electronic devices (48 per cent), food and beverages (47.5 per cent), chemical products (40 per cent), means of transport ( 22.5 percent), electrical appliances (22 percent), rubber and plastics (19 percent), textiles and clothing (14.5 percent), agricultural products and mechanical engineering (both 1 percent). Only metal products show a negative trend, down by almost nine percent, and the pharmaceutical sector, which compared to 2021 – the year of the marketing of vaccines against Covid-19 – loses 17 percent.
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Data by province and “destinations”
As mentioned, Syracuse exceeds five billion in exports, but stops at 602 million excluding products processed in the petrochemical hub of Priolo, Augusta and Melilli. Catania, on the other hand, exceeds one billion in “non-oil” exports, above all thanks to the electronic components produced in the so-called “Etna Valley”. Followed by Messina (800 million, of which 290 “non-oil”), Ragusa (360 million), Trapani (187 million), Palermo (164 million), Agrigento (87 million), Caltanissetta (69 million, of which 24 “non-oil -oil”) and Enna (nine million). As regards the destination countries of the products, Italian exports go mainly to Turkey (800 million), Gibraltar (745 million), the United States (675 million), Croatia (540 million) and France (478 million). If petroleum products are excluded, the first destination country is France (304 million), followed by Germany (257 million), the United States (231 million) and Belgium (150 million).
Exports, Sicily outclasses Italy in terms of oil. Bad only iron and pharmaceuticals