Italian textile machinery market grows steadily Interview with Mr.Alex Zucchi,President of ACIMIT (Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers)

In 2022 Italian market for textile ma—chines grew thanks to imports,while do—mestic sales of our manufacturers remained stable compared to 2021.As far as Italian exports to China are concerned,spinning and finishing machines are the most requested.Creativity,reliability and a very competitive price/quality ratio are the winning features of the Italian textile machinery industry.The medium—small size of the company also al—lows our manufacturers to be very flexible and reply carefully to the specific needs of each customer.

ACIMIT has been committed to sustain—ability and digitalization for years,through the Sustainable Technologies project,with the Green Label as the core of the initiative,and the digital certification called ACIMIT Digital Ready.Both projects testify to the commit—ment of Italian manufacturers in two areas of strategic importance to consolidate the leadership of Italian textile technology also in the future.With the Green Label,which certi—fies the environmental and economic perfor—mance of textile machinery,member compa—nies undertake to reduce the CO2emissions of their machines through constant technologi—cal improvement.With the Digital Ready,on the other hand,the aim is to standardise the production and management data of Italian textile machines and their ability to be digitally integrated at the customer's plant.

Italian enterprises have many actions to expand their business in emerging textilecenters,such as Southeast Asia and Africa.Our industry's interest in these two important geographical areas for the textile industry.ACIMIT,in collaboration with Italian Trade Agency,has for years undertaken a series of activities to promote the Italian textile ma—chinery industry in these areas as well.These initiatives include supporting Italian exhibi—tors at the main trade fairs of the sector,in—coming mission of foreign textile operators in Italy,setting up some technology centres for training students and textile operators located in the local training institutes.At the last,China is the first foreign market for our industry.Also for the ITMA ASIA+CITME edi—tion,I am confident that there will be many Italian exhibitors.