Chemicals
The Italian chemical industry is characterised by SMEs, with hundreds of companies which are specialized in market niches where they often gained a world-wide leadership. These companies are particularly concentrated in fine and specialty chemicals and play the important role of technological transfer from the big basic chemical companies to the downstream sectors.
The Italian chemical industry is concentrated in the North of the country, next to the downstream European markets and to customer companies. 72% of chemical companies are located in the northern regions and more than 40% only in Lombardy.