Italy is today the second largest producer of textile machinery in the world and the competitors themselves consider the technological level of its production of the highest standard.
The Italian textile machinery industry continued its remarkable growth in sales all over the world, though 1996 recorded a certain fall in comparison to 1995 for all manufacturing countries. Italian textile machinery sector is composed of about 350 firms and about 26,000 workers involved.
The min producing areas of Italian textile machinery are located Northern and Central Italy, like Biella, Como, Milano, Bergamo, Prato and Vicenza.
Italian textile machines are now found in every country where there is some kind of textile production.
The Italian textile machinery industry increased its market share between 1995-2001 at the expense of its traditional competitors Germany, Japan and Switzerland.
According to the Italian Association of Textile Machinery Producers (ACIMIT) production of Italian textile machinery amounted to 3.5 billion Euro in 2001 with an increase of 5% on previous year.
Foreign sales of Italian textile machines involved 130 countries and reached a value of 2.3 billion Euro, accounting for approximately 68% of the industry's total sales.
The leading four manufacturing countries - Germany, Italy, Japan and Switzerland - account for 61% of world exports.
The gradual shifting of textile production to Asian countries has not only led to a corresponding change in the commercial flows of the textile machinery industry but also to the development of local machinery manufacturer industries.
As a result, "second-level" competitors, such as China, Turkey and India, have taken market shares previously held by the traditional exporting countries.
In 2002, the production of Italian textile machinery amounted to 3.4 billion Euro, 71% of which (worth 2.4 billion Euro) exported.
Europe (43%) is the main export area, followed by Asia (41%), North America (7%), South America (5%) and Africa (4%).
The most demanded Italian textile machines most demanded were spinning machines (25%), followed by finishing machines (24%) and weaving machines (22%).
Italian textile machinery manufacturers are further improving their sales techniques.
Similarly, the small to medium size Italian companies, ensure personalised services, which cater to specific requirements of their customers, granting practically "tailor-made" service.
Italian machines are studied to process all natural fibres (wool, cotton, silk, flax, etc) as well as man-made fibres (polyester, acrylic, polyamides, etc) in order to give a correct answer to all the requests of a modern textile industry.
Italy is also one of the world's leading textiles producing nations and 3rd largest exporting. Exporters are traditionally renowned for the excellent quality of their textile production.
There are several very large concerns with a sound know how in carrying out large-scale textile installations anywhere in the world.
According to the WTO trade statistics, export of textiles and clothing from Italy increased from US $21.3 billion in 1990 to US $26.0 billion in 2001.
On the other hand, import of textiles and clothing also increased from US $8.7 billion in 1990 to US $12.3 billion in 2001.
The Italian textile sector sales for 2002 amounted to 19.3 billion Euro (down 5.2% from the previous year). Exports, which amount to a little less than 7.5 billion Euros, are down by 5.2%. Imports, for a little less than 3.3 billion Euros, were down by 7.6%.
The increase in activity in the first quarter of the year 2003 is due to the outstanding growth of both imports and exports.
Imports are forecast to rise by some 13% in value over the previous year while exports are set to rise by over 9%.
The key factor for the success of exports lies in the strong link between industry and distribution.
Pakistan, an attractive market for textile machinery manufacturers all over the world, has become a focal point for suppliers in view of the massive balancing, modernisation replacement (BMR) taking place under "Textile Vision 2005" programme, jointly launched by the Government and public sector of the country.
Since last year, Pakistan textile machinery has made significant investments in expansion and BMR and it is heartening to note that all the investment had been in production of value-added textile products for export.
Import of textile machinery from Italy to Pakistan increased from Rs 1.43 billion in 2000-2001 to Rs 1.84 billion in 2001-2002, thus showing an increase of 29%. Details are given in table.
Finally, events like IGATEX 2004, conference on textile machinery held in Karachi in the month of April, show how much interest Italian producers have in the Pakistani market; 64 companies from Italy were represented in the exhibition, one of the largest national delegations, all of them enthusiastic about the results and the prospects of this sector.
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