Mr Salmoiraghi, Face2Face extends its best wishes on your new role as President of ACIMIT. How would you express your feelings on this recently assumed role and responsibility?
Thank you. Well, this is not an easy time for the industry at a global level, and in taking over as president of ACIMIT I fully grasp the implications of this situation and the difficulties our manufacturers are presently encountering. So I see it as an additional stimulus to do an even better job.
Our pleasure sir. You are right, industry, indeed, is looking forward to you in confidence! In our earlier Face2Face with former President Mr Banfi, we had a brief about activities at ACIMIT four years ago. Taking the talk ahead, we wish to know transitions at ACIMIT in these years, say, in terms of activities/services or sectors?
I believe the work carried out by my predecessor was nothing short of excellent. In these years, ACIMIT’s Board of Directors, of which I was also a part, was fully committed to ensure maximum support for its associated members. As such, thanks to public support from the Ministry for Economic Development and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, promotional initiatives increased involving a growing number of our businesses and the markets in which they operate. ACIMIT has also been committed to informing its members on new market opportunities, even niche sectors, and innovative trends in sectors of the industry downstream.
Well, we admire the way ACIMIT is always vigilantly active for industry! Continuing the trend of bringing to date picture of the industry to our members/visitors, shall we now request your make of the current situation in the global textile machinery industry as it is performing today?
The current crisis covers the entire global textile machinery industry, and the overall slowdown in consumer spending has had repercussions, with a chain reaction in our sector as well. Textile manufacturers have blocked investments, as they wait for the situation to improve. The recovery is taking time to materialize, which is placing additional stress on the majority of textile machinery builders worldwide.
In continuation of above note, can you also delve out about exports your country made in sector for last two years?
In the primary markets for our exports, China, India and Turkey, sales of Italian machinery and technology have dropped considerably over 2008. For China and India, this slowdown arrived after a period of several years in which export trends had remained substantially positive. Italian export figures grew in very few markets during the course of 2008. Among these were Brazil and Russia.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.