In 2013 machinery was Italy’s largest export product to Qatar with a recorded total of €415.4mn, or a 38.6% jump, followed by furniture, helicopters, and iron works, the Italian embassy said.
Italian Ambassador Guido De Sanctis told Qatar newspaper Gulf Times that last year’s export figures for machineries have improved compared to the €385.1mn total recorded in 2012, which he attributed to enormous government spending on infrastructure and construction work related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the Qatar National Vision 2030 preparations.
Total trade volume between Qatar and Italy in 2013 amounted to €2.780bn with Italy exporting €1.07bn worth of machinery, furniture, helicopters, and iron works, and its gas imports reaching €1.704bn.
Referring to Qatar as a “machineries country,” De Sanctis said Italy recorded a rise in machinery exports to the country with a recorded €1.621bn in 2007 (or a 61.9% jump from 2006) at the height of Qatar’s industrialisation phase in the oil and gas sector. “Machinery is the principal export product of Italy worldwide. Our exports to Qatar reached its peak in 2007 since Qatar needed a lot of machinery for the processing of petrochemicals. Aside from machinery, we had also exported other items such as plants and other products,” De Sanctis said.
Iron works such as tanks and scaffolding exported to Qatar amounted to only €5.4mn in 2013. The figure remains in the shadow of exports recorded from 2007 to 2009 the highest of which was €337.9mn recorded in 2008 during Qatar’s oil and gas innovation phase, De Sanctis noted.
