ACIMIT (Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers) and ICE (Italian Institute for Foreign Trade) have organized a Meeting Point at the forthcoming Techtextil 2009 being held in Frankfurt from 16 to 18 June. The Meeting Point will host about ten Italian machinery manufacturers involved in the production of machines for technical textiles.

The Italian industry is paying particular attention to the technical and innovative textiles sector and ACIMIT estimates that about 100 Italian manufacturers are now offering machinery for the production of technical textiles and nonwovens. ACIMIT says that machines for technical textiles and nonwovens account for about 10% of global textile machinery production, which in 2008 amounted to over Euros 2 billion.

ACIMIT says that the excellence of Italian technology in the sector is the result of the synergy between the Italian manufacturers on one side and the Italian textile industry on the other. It also says that the technical textiles sector in Italy embraces several companies, which are leading in different fields of application and the steady research and innovation activities in the production of technical textiles linked together textile producers and Italian technology suppliers makes for a successful alliance.

The large number of countries which buy Italian textile machinery bears witness to the high quality of the Italian textile technology, ACIMIT says. In 2008 exports accounted for almost 79% of total turnover with Asia (with 43%) being the major destination of Italian exports, followed by Europe (34%), Latin America (11%), Africa (7%) and North America (5%).