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components for oil & gas. Indeed, figure 6 shows
Figure 6 –Italian and Korean exports share on total world export of selected components
(valves, industrial boilers, gaskets, pumps and turbines)
Figure 7 – Export growth of Italian vs. Korean components
Figure 8 – EBITDA trend of main Italian OFSE manufacturers (panel of 40)
32 Impiantistica Italiana - Gennaio-Febbraio 2017
that in year 2000 the exports of Italian valves,
pumps, industrial boilers, turbines and gaskets ac-
counted for more than 11% of global trade flows for
those categories, but then shrunk to 8% in 2015.
Indeed, over the last years, the contraction of the
industry, together with the loss of competitiveness
of Italian equipment providers when compared to
Koreans, resulted in a slower increase in Italian ex-
ports (6% CAGR in 5 years) compared to the mar-
ket (+8%) and especially to Korean exports that
grew faster than the market (+13%), as figure 7
indicates.
Italian OFSE manufacturers’ performance.
Due to worsening market conditions, lower com-
petitiveness against local and especially Korean
competitors and limited impact of corrective ac-
tions, Italian OFSE have seen their financial per-
formance worsen in the last years. As can be
observed in figure 8, aggregated EBITDA as a per-
centage of revenues has decreased from 15% in
2014 to only 4% in 2015, while EBITDA in volumes
has decreased by ~70% in the same period (as-
sessment made on a panel of ca. 40 Italian OFSE
manufacturers).
However, the oil price slump
has only accelerated an
industry structural evolution
that had started years before
1 Increasing complexity was already
driving structural changes within the
industry
Deepwater & Unconventional projects in-
crease. In the last years, upstream projects have
become more and more complex: deep offshore
and unconventional investments were the new fron-
tier. Major IOCs rushed into those harsher and more
complex projects, putting margins at risk but moving
away from competition of emerging NOCs and local
players. As a result, from 2003 to 2014, 60% of giant
oil field discoveries occurred in Deepwater. Exxon
Mobil in 2011 had over 60% of its reserves in arctic,
unconventional, heavy oil and Deepwater, against
only around 20% in 2005. As Oil Companies turned
into offshore and unconventional, oil field services
providers adapted to the new industry challenges.
In Brazil for example, as production from offshore
was projected to double from 2012 to 2020 (from
2.2mbpd to 4.1mbpd), most major OFSE set up lo-
cal production to improve their competitive position
in one of the biggest offshore markets at global level
(ex. Baker Hughes, Halliburton, FMC Technologies,
Technip, Aker, Cameron, …).