The 17th edition of ITMA, the world’s foremost trade fair dedicated to textile machinery, opens its doors in Milan; once again the event is marked by a significant presence of Italian companies, both in their numbers and in the quality of their technology.
ITMA opens its doors on 12 November in Milan, and for eight straight days visitors at the world’s foremost textile machinery event will have an opportunity to appreciate the high level of technology being proposed by the 454 Italian machinery manufacturers exhibiting at the fair. The overall exhibition space occupied by Italian machinery manufacturers is nearly 32,000 square metres (30% of the total available surface area), confirming Italy’s leadership position among exhibiting Countries.
“We’re justly proud to have brought back to Milan the world’s major textile machinery fair after twenty years,” Raffaella Carabelli, President of ACIMIT (the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers), says. “These numbers not only rank Italy first among exhibiting Countries, but are a true testament to the vitality of our sector, and confirm the good state of health of the Italian textile industry.”
The commitment of Italy’s textile machinery industry and ACIMIT to sustainability
Moreover, this Milan edition of ITMA is a litmus test for assessing the commitment of the global textile machinery sector to a truly sustainable textile and garments industry, as the event’s slogan states: “Master the Art of Sustainable Innovation”. In this area too, Italian manufacturers want to play a major role.
For some time now, Italian machinery manufacturers have been focusing on the issue of sustainability for their products, in order to satisfy the demand for efficient technology solutions that effectively cut back on consumption, and consequently on production costs. ”Our association has been committed to the issues of environmental and economic sustainability since 2010, with the “Sustainable Technologies” project, to which over 40 companies have adhered,” states ACIMIT’s president.
“During ITMA, we’ll be presenting to the specialised press the project’s effects on CO2 emissions,” explains Carabelli. Based on estimates elaborated by the engineering firm D’Appolonia, in 2014 the reduction of CO2 emissions generated by the use of environmentally green certified Italian machinery in accordance with the “Sustainable Technologies” project amounted to 221,181 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the emissions of 38,534 cars travelling on average 35,000 kilometres per year.
Carabelli adds “This is the contribution our sector can make to the entire industry. Bearing witness to this commitment, the press conference will be followed by a sustainable fashion show.” Five young designers will provide an interpretation of sustainable fabrics supplied by 6 textile manufacturers with a strong commitment to environmentally responsible policies and make use of Italian machinery; these companies are Besani, Canepa, Ditta Giovanni Lanfranchi, Eurojersey, Italdenim and Tessitura Attilio Imperiali.
Support from the Ministry for Economic Development and the ICE Agency
The fashion show is part of ITMA’s Special Project set up by the Italian Government, through the Italian Ministry for Economic Development and the Italian Trade Agency, with the aim of promoting Italy’s participation in the event.
“ITMA Milan is a unique window of opportunity for the Italian textile machinery sector, which is one of Italy’s industrial sectors with the greatest attitude towards internationalisation. This why it has benefitted from significant financial support from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development, and in partnership with ACIMIT, has been the object of an articulated project known as the Special Project for ITMA Milan 2015, providing support through targeted initiatives to the numerous Italian companies present at the fair," states Roberto Luongo, General Director of the Italian Trade Agency.
Among the various initiatives that stand out for 2015 are the foreign delegations arriving in Italy: around 200 textile operators hailing from about ten different Countries, including Bangladesh, Iran, Egypt and Pakistan, and the ITMA 2015 Awards, thanks to which 10 students from foreign universities (Ethiopia, India, Russia and Vietnam) will be able to visit the ITMA pavilions and discover the Italian textile machinery sector’s latest and most innovative proposals. All of these initiatives are being backed by an intensive promotional campaign (including videos; one on colour and the other on innovation), two press conferences, and the new ACIMIT institutional video.
ACIMIT will be at ITMA 2015 (Hall 8, Stand B132a) to provide visitors with all the necessary information to get to know Italy’s textile machinery industry better.
