ACIMIT: Focusing on sustainable technologies

By Zhao Zihan

ACIMIT (the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers) is a private non-profit making body and its main purpose consists in promoting the Italian textile machinery sector and in supporting its activity, mainly abroad, through the most updated and innovative promotional means, constantly improved during its 70 years of life.

In order to promote the Italian textile machinery knowledge throughout the world, ACIMIT gives any kind of information on the activity of the producers and organizes a wide range of promotional activities (such as exhibitions, technical seminars, missions in Italy and abroad, etc.) most of the time in collaboration with Italian Trade Agency.

In Italy, there are approximately 300 companies who produce textile machines and related accessories, for a total of about 12,000 employees. At a world level Italy is one of the main suppliers of textile machinery together with Germany, Japan, China and Switzerland. Italian market share on the world exports of textile machinery is about 11%.

At present, Chinese textile enterprises have largely slowed down their demand for textile machinery products compared to several years ago owing to the economic slowdown in China. As for the impacts to the production and sales in Italy, President Raffaella CARABELLI told the reporter that “China has been our primary foreign market for years now. In 2014 Italian textile machinery manufacturers exported 252 million euros worth of products to China, amounting to 15% of their total exports. Over the past three years, we’ve seen a drop in sales that has undoubtedly affected the flow of total exports for the industry. However, Italian companies have managed to react positively, thanks in part to the business opportunities they’ve been able to seize in other markets. Moreover, compared to the same period for 2014, sales of Italian machinery to China for the first half of 2015 are encouraging, since no further declines have been recorded.”

Today, many developing countries such as India and Vietnam are enjoying rapid development of textile industry, and their demand for textile machinery in Europe is to grow. However, according to Raffaella, “The demand for textile machinery obviously does not stop with China, and for Asia we’re already witnessing a growing demand for Italian technology in emerging markets such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. For instance, for the first six months of the year, Italian exports to Bangladesh rose by 138%. In Vietnam, last year sales of Italian machinery grew significantly. Over the short term, however, I don’t believe that India, Bangladesh or Pakistan will replace China as the primary market for Italian textile technology.”

As for the characteristics Italian textile machinery sale has presented till now, Raffaella said that “Italian textile machinery technology owes its global success to a variety of reasons, which differ from one company to the next, but nonetheless we can emphasize some common traits: quality, creativity, reliability and sustainable technologies. These are the special characteristics that have enabled Italian manufacturers to become worldwide leaders.”

Compared with the European textile equipment products, “China’s textile machinery industry has made giant leaps forward in recent years, not only in terms of sales volumes, but also for the quality of the technology offered. Acquisitions of foreign technology, recently carried out by Chinese groups in the sector, will eventually further enhance the qualitative level of their machinery, reducing the gap that still exists in some departments.”

At the end of the interview, Raffaella introduced new equipment and technology from Italy that will be unveiled at the show as well as the new features and trends of the exhibits. “ITMA is considered by Italian machinery manufacturers to provide a window that every 4 years allows them to present the technological innovations they’ve been working on for some time. We can’t provide a list of all the innovations that will be exhibited by Italian companies. However, I can say that the entire Italian textile machinery sector is working hard to provide its customers with sustainable technologies that respect the environment and above all provide energy savings, as well as cutting back on the use of water and other raw materials. Indeed, what the textile industry demands is a reduction in production costs. At ITMA, visitors will be able to find answers to their demands by visiting the stands of Italian exhibitors.”