Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Italy's national development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), together with a banking consortium led by Intesa Sanpaolo (including Crédit Agricole and Banca Popolare di Sondrio), provided a EUR 56 million financing package to ICAM SpA, an Italian chocolate and cocoa semi-finished products manufacturer based in Orsenigo (Como province). Of the total, EUR 40 million is earmarked for expansion of the Orsenigo production facility — including a new production building, an innovation centre for chocolate recipe development, energy-efficient automated machinery, and enhanced raw-material traceability systems — while EUR 16 million supports the company's capital structure. The expansion will add over 23,000 square meters across four levels and raise production capacity from 30,000 to 50,000 tons annually by 2027.

SARS inserted rebate item 460.15/7306.40/01.06 into Part 2 of Schedule No. 4 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Government Gazette 53334, Notice R.6596, 12 September 2025), giving effect to ITAC Report No. 742. The item creates a temporary duty rebate on stainless-steel tubing (HS 7306.40) used in the manufacture and maintenance of processing plants for the hygienic and liquid-food industries. ITAC found no known SACU manufacturer produces stainless-steel tubing to the required hygienic/ food-grade specifications, and no near-term prospect of local production given cost constraints, so it recommended a full duty waiver subject to an ITAC permit confirming the goods are not available in the SACU market. Applicant: Guth South Africa (equipment supplier to the hygienic and liquid-food processing sector).

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved BRL 133.2 million (approx. USD 23.5 million) in financing to Coopavel Cooperativa Agroindustrial, a Paraná-based agricultural cooperative, toward a BRL 144.3 million total investment. The operation was structured under the Plano Safra framework using resources from the Programa para Construção e Ampliação de Armazéns (PCA) and Prodecoop. Funds expand and modernize grain-receiving and input-sale units in Três Barras and Céu Azul (Paraná), lifting combined storage capacity by roughly 19,600 tonnes and raising annual feed-ration output from 630,000 to 690,000 tonnes.