How is Italy doing in the Space economy. Report
On the occasion of World Space Day , the Studies and Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo published the study on the Space Economy. Here is the executive summary
Space is becoming an increasingly central theme in the economic and social debate, given its strategic importance for the future development of countries.
The growth prospects are in fact multiple, with important repercussions on onshore activities. From the spread of the satellite industry in more and more areas of application to space tourism, from the exploitation of extra-terrestrial resources to high value-added services linked to the spread of new technologies, thanks to technological progress, Space offers more and more opportunities.
The Space Economy includes a variety of different actors, both by typology and by production specialization: from universities to national agencies, from research centers and laboratories to companies. In the business world there are large players, integrated and multi-diversified in their production offer, and a multitude of SMEs, as well as innovative start-ups. A common feature of all the actors involved is certainly the strong attention to technological innovation. According to the Space Foundation, the value generated by activities related to the Space Economy was $ 447 billion worldwide in 2020, double that achieved just ten years ago. It therefore emerges that the Space Economy is a complex ecosystem, which integrates manufacturing industry with a high technological content and advanced services, in which scientific research plays a leading role. What characterizes the supply chain is precisely the mixture of these different subjects that allows continuous knowledge transfers, supporting a synergistic development with a high rate of innovation.
The Space Economy is today at an important turning point with the entry of an ever greater number of private players and the commercial development of the sector, which expands the offer of products and services, markets and business areas, bringing to talk about the New Space Economy. Despite the growth in private sector investments, public resources still represent (and will be for the next few years as well) the most important driver of development. Italy ranks seventh among the G-20 countries for public spending budgets in the space sector, in relation to GDP, and second for incidence of public R&D in space on the total (approximately 1.5 billion by 2020 euros), highlighting the role that the Space plays in the national interest. The attention paid to Space in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the recent appointment of Milan for the organization of the International Astronautical Congress in 2024, confirm this interest and awareness of the strategic importance of the supply chain.
Italy boasts a good competitive position in the sector, as emerges from the data on international trade and innovative activity, focused on the core activities of the supply chain. Italy, with a share of world exports of 6.9% (average 2015-2019, data in current dollars) ranks fourth among the main leaders in the sector, after the United States, France and Germany, showing a better positioning compared to the data of the entire economy, where our country with a weight of about 3% occupies the ninth position in the international ranking. The analysis of Italian data updated to 2020 highlights that there are two most relevant markets, both in terms of commercial outlets and as a source of supply: France and Germany, also reflecting the close relationships created by participating in European projects. Also in terms of innovative activity, Italy shows a good result, ranking fifth among the main patenting countries, with a 4.1% share of world patents relating to the Space Economy (years 2013-2018), which compares with the eleventh position for total patents, revealing a good specialization in space activities, as confirmed by the RTA (Revealed Technology Advantage) index, on values above 2, in the first places among the main economies.
To get a more complete idea of our country's competitiveness in the space economy, the analysis includes an extensive mapping of the companies in the Space Economy chain in Italy, starting from a variety of sources: companies associated with the Italian Space Agency , members of the aerospace technology clusters, participants in Horizon 2020 projects, beneficiaries of funding from the Structural Funds. The use of different sources allows us to broaden our view, including in the analysis those subjects who, far from being “standard” players in the space economy, are however active on certain projects relating to the world of the Space Economy. It is thus possible to outline an even broader picture of the supply chain that allows the complexity and multidisciplinarity of this world to emerge.
The companies mapped are 286: these are "young" companies, born after the 2000s and mainly small-sized (under 2 million in turnover). Companies specialized in high-tech production niches, offering customized and cutting-edge solutions, are flanked by some large players, integrated and with a highly diversified offer. The Italian supply chain is complete, with the presence of both manufacturers of spacecraft, launchers and satellites, as well as players specialized in high value-added services to complete the sector's production offer. Another aspect that emerges from the photograph of the main sectors involved in the Space Economy is the strong multidisciplinarity that characterizes the supply chain: the Space Economy is in fact a world in which a variety of different activities coexist. This element of mixing between sectors and production specializations also favors collaboration between the various subjects, pushed to work jointly by sharing their knowledge and skills.
Finally, some of the possible future technological trends of the space economy are presented, from space tourism to the development of new production processes in the absence of gravity, which offer ideas for further reflections. The enormous economic potential linked to the Space Economy pushes towards a new space race, which will also lead to the definition of new geopolitical balances and which will also require a renewed regulatory framework.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/come-sta-italia-nella-space-economy-report/ on Thu, 16 Dec 2021 11:22:06 +0000.