Italian machinery: 2017 kicks off with rise in orders

The year 2017 has started off on a positive note for Italian textile machinery manufacturers. For the first quarter, orders have increased both in Italy and abroad. Says ACIMIT President Raffaella Carabelli: “Orders for the start of 2017 confirm a positive trend in major foreign markets, and a climate of trust for Italy’s textile industry that is on the upswing.”

The orders index for textile machinery compiled by ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers, for the period from January to March, grew 24 per cent compared to the same period in 2016. The index value stood at 113.7 points (basis 2010 = 100).

This growth regarded mostly markets abroad, where the index came in at an absolute value of 124.1 points (+26 per cent). In Italy, the increase compared to the period from January to March 2016 was 16 per cent, with an absolute value of 71.5 points.

ACIMIT president Raffaella Carabelli commented on the results, “The index data for the first three months of the year confirm the positive signs ascertained by our businesses in various foreign markets.” The dynamic trend for Italy’s domestic market originates, on the other hand, with the National Industrial Plan 4.0. “A renewed climate of enhanced trust is currently perceived in the textile sector,” states Raffaella Carabelli, “triggered by the government’s commitment to enact a range of significant incentives for the Country’s manufacturing system.”

ACIMIT represents an industrial sector comprising around 300 manufacturers (employing close to 12,000 people) and producing machinery for an overall value of about 2.7 billion euros, with exports amounting to more than 85 per cent of total sales. Creativity, sustainable technology, reliability and quality are the characteristics which have made Italy a global leader in the manufacturing of textile machinery.