ACIMIT initiatives in India receive good response: Alessandro Zucchi

ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers, is the chief promoter of the “Sustainable Technologies” project, through which it intends to favour Italian machinery and technology that adheres to an intelligent use and management of chemical products, energy and water for textile machinery, within a framework of eco-sustainable development. Thanks to ACIMIT’s green label, Italian machinery manufacturers can now declare the environmental performance specifications of each machine they produce. The label provides a list of indicators, such as the machine’s Carbon Footprint, a parameter which determines its ecological efficiency.

ACIMIT initiatives often target Asian markets, to which Italy exports roughly 50 per cent of its total exported machinery. For the Indian market, which is the second largest Asian market for Italian machinery manufacturers, Acimit has implemented many initiatives over the past years.

Alessandro Zucchi, President of ACIMIT, spoke in an email interview with Samuel Joseph, Editor of the Indian Textile Journal.

With the ITMA Barcelona over, how has been the response for the Italian textile machinery industry?

ITMA has confirmed itself as a showcase of excellence for the worldwide textile machinery industry. The Italian exhibitors were satisfied both for the number of visitors met and for the quality of the same.

Please comment on some negative growth with drop in orders intake for the Italian textile machinery industry in the recent times.

The drop in orders intake reflects the situation that Italian manufacturers have found in many markets in this first part of the year. The uncertainty due to negative geopolitical situation was further weighed down for our sector by the awaiting of ITMA.

Were there any special efforts mounted in recent times to boost Italian machinery industry’s presence in Asia, and particularly in India? What were the results?

ACIMIT initiatives often target Asian markets, to which Italy exports roughly 50 per cent of its total exported machinery. For the Indian market, which is the second largest Asian market for Italian machinery manufacturers, we have implemented many initiatives over the past years. The most recent ones included incoming missions for Indian manufacturers to Italy in order to more deeply know Italian technological supply and the implementation of a technological training centre in Ichalkaranji, in the district of Kolhapur, in the federated state of Maharashtra, in cooperation with DKTE’S Textile & Engineering Institute and with the financial support of Italian Ministry for Economic Development (MISE). I think the results of our activities are tangible: Italy is among the leading suppliers of textile machines on the Indian market

How have eco and sustainability campaigns of Italian industry doing since the launch and how is the response from the industry? Your views on the sustainability awards presented at ITMA.

Today there is greater awareness than a few years ago by textile companies about the sustainability of production and production processes. Italian textile machinery manufacturers were among the first to understand the need to commit them to sustainability. ACIMIT goal is to highlight this Italian commitment and does so also through the Green Label Awards with which two of our particularly active companies, Tonello and Loptex, have been awarded in Barcelona during the last ITMA.

What are the other special efforts undertaken to promote Italian textile technologies all over the world?

The textile industry is currently undergoing a profound digital transformation. The contribution that Italian technology can provide in these transformation processes is essential, thanks to the efforts being put forward by our manufacturers to interconnect different machines along the entire chain of production.

Which are the segments in the Italian textile machinery industry that hold out good scope for the Asian textile industry, particularly India?

The Italian technological offer is wide and covers all sectors of the textile production process, from spinning to weaving, from knitting to finishing. A textile manufacturer that wants to remain competitive must avail itself of advanced technologies that can have an impact on all phases of the production process, resulting in greater added value. Regarding India, historically the demand for Italian textile machinery has focused primarily on spinning machines and those for the finishing sector.

How do you look at the future of global textile industry? What is the role ACIMIT will be playing and what are the new developments that one can look forward to for the growth of the industry? Attention to each customer needs and speed to market will be some of the keys for the success in the future. Therefore textile companies will have to focus on sustainable technologies able to support the digitalisation process that will involve the global textile industry. I believe that ACIMIT is already playing an important role today, raising awareness among its member companies on these issues and supporting them in this process.

Italy has always been at the forefront of textile technologies and what is its wish list for the Indian industry and the Indian Government to promote textile industry’s growth in India?

The development of the Indian textile industry requires greater dialogue, not only among the foreign suppliers and the local textile companies, but also among the trade associations and Government institutions. Technological cooperation cannot disregard this institutional dialogue aimed at eliminating any commercial criticalities among countries.