At the upcoming ITMA Asia + CITME 2010, which opens its doors on June 22 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in Shanghai, Italian textile machinery manufacturers will represent one of the largest foreign delegations: 115 exhibitors occupying a total surface area of about 4,000 sq. meters. Of these exhibitors, 67 will be presenting their products as part of the National Sector Group, organized by ACIMIT (the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers), Italian Ministry for Economic Development and Italian Trade Commission - ICE. The 4 Italian National Sector Groups will be located in the spinning machinery (Hall W2), non-woven fabrics (Hall E1), weaving machinery (Hall E4) and finishing machinery (Hall W5) areas respectively. Italy's National Sector Group will occupy a total surface area of around 1,700 sq. meters.

"ITMA Asia + CITME is the most important event for 2010 in the textile machinery industry worldwide - states Sandro Salmoiraghi, President of ACIMIT - Asia makes up fully 48% of the world's demand for textile machinery, with China and India, the world's two largest markets, absorbing 26% of global imports in the sector. These figures bear witness to the importance of this event and the expectations of all exhibitors towards the success of this edition of ITMA Asia + CITME".

For Italian textile machinery manufacturers, Asia represents 50% of their total exports. In 2009, Italy exported 585 million euros worth of machinery to the Asian continent, for the most part directed at the spinning (30% of the total) and finishing (18%) sectors. China and India are by far the primary markets in the area for Italian companies, together absorbing 29% of sales abroad. Next in line are Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Iran.
?"China market for Italian textile technology has a promising future - explains Maurizio Forte, Italian Trade Commissioner in Shanghai - as Chinese end users, encouraged by government policies, are continuing to invest on the high-end, energy-saving, and high efficient textile machineries, whose demand is not yet satisfied by domestic machinery manufacturers. The data show that, after a slight decline in 2009, our export restarted a growth trend which, in the first quarter of 2010, attained +85% confirming Italy as third larger exporter country to China after Japan and Germany".
?"For Italian manufacturers - emphasizes Salmoiraghi - 2010 has begun with some positive signs. A growing number of orders and other encouraging indicators are coming to us from Asia, where our exports have grown over the first two months of the year by 58% compared to the same period for 2009. In China Italian sales have increased by as much as 165%".
?"We're perceiving a willingness on the part of many of our customers to resume investments - continues ACIMIT's President - so as to avoid being caught unprepared when the recovery fully takes hold".
The global economic crisis has changed people's behaviour in the industry. The textile and clothing sector in Asia has had to deal with an escalation in the prices of raw materials, along with increased production costs and a weakened demand from Western markets. Many Asian manufacturers have to pay attention to cutting costs and rendering their entire production process sustainable. Italian technology suppliers want to help them meet these new requests, providing sustainable technologies that focus on savings related to energy, water and chemical substances, leading to a more responsible production cycle that keeps consumption costs down.
?"The aim of the 'eco-sustainability' project ACIMIT has undertaken - explains Salmoiraghi - is to create a 'green tag' on which a manufacturer can declare the energy/environmental specifications of each machinery produced. Some phases of this initiative are part of the European Project Nu-Wave and will benefit of the competence of D'Appolonia, RTD performer and coordinator of the project. As we await project's full realization, visitors at ITMA Asia + CITME can nonetheless get a firsthand look at the progress being made by Italian machinery manufacturers on this front, by visiting the booths of ACIMIT's members identified by the Sustainable Technologies logo".

Both Italy's participation at ITMA Asia + CITME 2010 and the 'eco-sustainability' project are supported by the Italian government through the Ministry for Economic Development and Italian Trade Commission, as initiatives to be promoted and financed, convinced of the crucial role of Italy's textile machinery sector in re-launching the Country's economy.?
?"ITMA Asia is the most important biannual sectoral event promoted by the Italian Trade Commission in the area - underlines Mr. Fiore, ITC Rome - Head of Capital Goods and High Tech Division, pointing that the Italian Textile Machinery promotion program is also part of a scheduled field trip to several Chines cities on October 2010".
?"We are certain - concludes Salmoiraghi - that visitors at ITMA Asia + CITME will especially appreciate this commitment being put forward by our Association and by our entire sector with respect to environmental issues, as has been demonstrated by China's own textile industry, making energy savings its primary message. This is an additional opportunity to strengthen the existing technology partnership between Italian machinery manufacturers and Chinese and Asian textile manufacturers, as testified by our export numbers towards the entire Asian continent".