ARGENTINA - Argentine imports of European machinery for wooden panel processing reached USD 5.05 million in the January-August 2019 period (8M-2019) compared to USD 7.74 million in the same period of 2018.

These figures represent a significant drop of 34.7 percent in Argentine investments of European technology for wooden panel processing.

Italian wood processing technology was once again - and by far - the most demanded by the Argentine industry.

The main supplier to the Argentine market in 8M-2019 was the Biesse Group of Italy with shipments for USD 2.58 million, which represented a slight increase of 0.6 percent compared to the same period of 2018 (8M-2018: USD 2.57 million).

The SCM Group, also Italian, was the second European supplier with USD 1.18 million (8M-2018: USD 2.66 million). Although in second position, this figure implies a sharp drop of 55.6 percent for SCM.

In third place, the Homag Group of Germany follows, with shipments for USD 353 thousand in the first eight months of 2019 (8M-2018: USD 347 thousand), slight increase of 1.7 percent over the same period last year.