Eight out of 100 companies at a loss. Another 22 who are asking for layoffs. Not yet a dramatic scenario, that of Brescia’s industry, one of the cornerstones of national manufacturing. But as a result of the cost of energy, we can now observe a picture in progressive deterioration, where the apparent growth in revenues is linked to cost inflation and sees an overall slowdown in added value.
From the monitoring carried out by Confindustria Brescia, an association that met its assembly yesterday, it also emerges that almost half of the companies declare that they can continue the business with economic convenience for a maximum of six months.
This is why rapid, emergency actions are needed. And that’s why “The sense of time” is the claim of the meeting. The request to politics is in fact to rewrite the agenda at a different speed than in the past. “The industry needs quick answers – explains the president of Confindustria Brescia Franco Gussalli Beretta – while today we see a strong discrepancy between the speed of unforeseen events such as Covid, invasion of Russia in Ukraine, leap of gas and electricity and the timing of the reaction with which economic and social institutions and actors manage to react ».
The basic idea is that an immediate intervention on the extra energy cost is basically less expensive than a generalized short circuit of the system.
“If we lose industrial capacity, the whole country will suffer – he explains – and it is therefore essential that the next government understand how work and business must be at the center of the program. This requires urgent interventions to tackle the energy problem, which at these price levels risks putting companies out of the game also in terms of international competitiveness, cutting down exports ». Production hold which also means guarantee of work, therefore of consumption, of the keeping of families and ultimately of the country’s social security. Production estate that represents the main way to avoid “a disastrous spiral”.