The 24-hour Sun news website reported June 25 that sales of Italian automation equipment and machine tool robots rose 16.6% in the year 2006-2007, equivalent to an increase of 5.82 billion euros in sales. In the same period, its domestic market sales grew 22.4% and exports grew by 11.9%. The main export destination countries are Germany, China, the United States, Spain and France. China is the second largest importer of Italian machine tool robots and automation equipment. The trend was still growing in 2008, but fell by 9.6% compared with the previous two years.