“Italy’s Textile Machinery Exports to Turkey Showed Increased In 2018”
The important role that Turkey plays in the international textile and clothing industry has made the Country one of the world’s leading markets for textile machinery. Indeed the Country accounts for the 8% of the total world imports of textile machinery. The most requested Italian machinery are the spinning ones (28% of the total export toward Turkey), followed by knitting and finishing ones (22%) and weaving ones (17%). Alessandro Zucchi, President of ACIMIT (Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers Association), answered our questions for ‘Italy Special Edition’. Zucchi evaluated the 2018 year in terms of Italian textile machinery manufacturers.
Can you evaluate 2018 for the Italy machinery manufacturers? What was the position of the Turkish market and how important is the Turkish market for the Italian manufacturers?
The preliminary results for 2018 show a slight decrease both for the production and for export of Italian textile machines. Turkey remains one of the main markets for Italian manufacturers. The Country is in second place behind China alone, with an Italian export value of 175 million euros in the first nine months of 2018.
What markets were developing and declining for the Italy textile machinery industry?
Overall, Asian markets are slowing down for Italian companies, while sales in the main African markets are growing. Among the top ten destinations of the Italian machinery only Turkey, Vietnam and Egypt recorded an increase for the Italian exports in January-September 2018 period.
How does ACIMIT support its members? What are the major planned activities for the upcoming period?
ACIMIT activities in support of member companies are aimed at encouraging their internationalization. Also in 2019 our Association has a very broad promotional program, which will be implemented in cooperation with Italian Trade Agency which is the Italian government agency supporting Italian companies. Among the various initiatives we can mention those related to ITMA Barcelona, the most important event for the sector in 2019.
Industry 4.0 and sustainability are major terms in the agenda. Can you evaluate the Italian companies through these terms?
The digitization of the textile sector is essential to achieve increasingly higher quality standards in the production processes. To achieve this goal, a strong partnership among technology providers and textile companies is required. The Italian manufacturers are now on the cutting edge on some issues, such as predictive maintenance, the use of collaborative robot (cobot) and 3D printing. On the topic of sustainability, Italian companies are in the front row. Through the Sustainable Technologies project, realized by ACIMIT, many of our member companies are constantly engaged in offering machines with a lower environmental impact and reduced consumption of raw materials.
Interview: Dilek Hayırlı
