Swiss Watchmaking Sharp upturn in results
Swiss watch exports made very strong progress in June after the slowdown of little consequence in May. The sixth month of the year recorded a total value of 1.396 billion francs, a rate of monthly growth of +18.5%. The first half-year benefited from this strong increase, ending with a result of 7.2 billion francs, an increase of 15.5% compared to January-June 2006. The variation over twelve months also picked up the pace, exceeding forecasts at +12.8%.
With a rate of +7.2%, May was the only month not to register two-digit growth during the first half-year. However the increase exceeded 20% in February and March. The first half of the year has shown no weakness therefore and extends a long series of excellent results for Swiss watch manufacturers. The gain compared to 2006 is already nearly one billion francs and augers very well for 2007 as a whole.
Products
In June, exports of wristwatches flattened slightly, with a rate of increase of +17.8%. They were sustained by a wide range of materials, in particular gold, steel and the category of other metals (mainly aluminium). The number of pieces remained virtually stable (+0.5%) however. Several increases were offset by a decline in the category of other materials.
Over the first half-year as a whole, exports of wristwatches saw their value increase by 15.4%, to 6.6 billion francs. Precious metal timepieces showed the highest rates of growth. No materials lost ground. In six months, 11.8 million wristwatches left Swiss territory (+3.6%), corresponding to an increase of 410,000 pieces compared to January-June 2006. Steel products recorded the most significant increase with a gain of nearly 800,000 units. In contrast, the categories of other metals (-140,000 units) and other materials (-310,000 units) declined significantly.
All price segments exceeded their level of the first half of 2006. Wristwatches costing less than 3,000 francs (export price) saw their value increase by 7.6% and registered a 3.2% increase in the number of pieces. Timepieces costing more than 3,000 francs impressed with much higher rates of variation: +23.7% by value and +13.5 by volume.
Results for other products exported by Swiss firms also improved sharply. Bracelets (88.4 million francs, +9.0%) trailed behind the average rate of growth. However movements (85.4 million, +19.3%) and cases (29.3 million, +21.5%) did better. Among large volume articles, clocks, including alarms (17.7 million, +14.7%) remained on a par with the average.
Markets
In the first half of 2007, the fifteen main markets showed the following trend (total value in million francs and % variation by comparison with the first half of 2006):
All of the main markets recorded gains in June. While the United States and Japan remained slightly off the pace, Hong Kong made strong progress. Europe overall increased its rate of growth.
The first half-year also proved positive for all of the main outlets for Swiss watch exports. The United States remained a highly attractive market for Swiss watch manufacturers. Hong Kong continued to improve, while Japan registered one of the lowest rates of growth, confirming its slowdown. Italy and France turned in average performances, however Germany lagged behind. Among other markets mention should be made of the strong growth registered by China and Russia, whose performance outstripped all others in the first half-year.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
