Extrusion International 4-2024-USA

14 Extrusion International 4/2024 INDUSTRY NEWS AMAPLAST ASSEMBLY – The Federation project takes off On 6 June 2024, Villa Arconati hosted the annual Members Assembly of Amaplast – the national trade association affiliated with Confindustria representing approximately 170 manufacturers of machinery, equipment, and moulds for plastics and rubber.  On this occasion, the asso - ciation's leadership was renewed with the election of new members: • General Council, with the elec- tion of Luna Artico (FRIUL FIL- IERE), Alessandro Balzanelli (F.B. BALZANELLI), Michele Bandera (COSTRUZIONI MECCANICHE LU- IGI BANDERA), Alessandra Bosco (INGLASS), Gianfranco Cattapan (PLASTIC SYSTEMS), Maria Grazia Colombo (BFM), Giovanna Fran- ceschetti (GEFRAN), Gianni Luoni (ELBA), Fabiola Plebani (MAST) for the 2024-2026 term • Board of Arbitrators, with the election of Erica Canaia (FIMIC), Carlo Cominelli (ITIB MACHINERY), Andrea Fantozzi (MOSS), Valeria Giacomoni (SICA), Aldo Zaffaroni (ZAFFARONI) for the 2024-2028 term • Board of Auditors, with the election of Gianni Cazzulo (char- tered accountant), Claudia Cribiù (CRIZAF), Roberta Rivi (RIVI MAG- NETICS) for the 2024-2028 term. During his speech, President Massimo Margaglione made re - marks about the performance of the Italian industry of machinery, equipment, and moulds for plastics and rubber. Drawing on data from the association's research centre, he observed that, despite a chal - lenging global environment, the sector had seen growth of 2.8% in 2023. Although this increase was less pronounced than in the previous two years, it brought the value of production to a record 4.8 billion euros. Exports remain the main driving force with an 11% increase compared to 2022, solidi- fying Italy's position as the world's third-largest exporter, following China and Germany. The assembly endorsed their commitment to the federative project that led to the founding of Confindustria Machinery Fed - eration, for ceramics, wood, plas- tics and rubber, and packing and packaging. Alongside Amaplast, this federation includes: • Acimac - Association of Italian Manufactures of Machinery and Equipment for Ceramics • Acimall - Italian Woodworking Technology Association • Ucima - Italian Packaging Ma- chinery Manufacturers' Associa- tion. The goal is to pool the skills and experiences of each association to expand and further improve the quality of the services offered to member companies. The newly formed Federation represents over 1,300 companies, with a workforce approaching 70,000 employees, and a total rev- enue surpassing 19 billion euros. Vice Presidents Gabriele Caccia and Barbara Ulcelli recapped the initiatives undertaken by Amaplast over the past year, with particular emphasis on the PLAST 2023 fair. They also provided details regard - ing upcoming plans, highlighting the preparations for GREENPLAST 2025 (Milan, 27-30 May 2025, once again as part of The Innovation Al - liance). Sector Overview According to the analyses con - ducted by the MECS-Amaplast re- search centre, the Italian industry for machinery, equipment, and plastics and rubber moulds closed 2023 with growth of 2.8% despite the challenging global context marked by conflicts, inflationary pressures, and high interest rates. This increase, though more modest compared to that of the preceding two years, propelled production to an unprecedented record of 4.8 billion euros. Despite economic and com - mercial uncertainties across vari - ous geographical regions, which worsened in the last quarter of the year, the performance of the sector remained positive, driven primarily by exports. Said ex- ports saw a remarkable growth of nearly eleven percentage points compared to 2022. Italian manu- facturers of plastic and rubber ma - chinery experienced particularly strong sales in key markets such as the European Union (+9% over 2022), North America (+18%), and Asia (+8%, with the Middle East up by 50% and the Far East down by 1%). Though with smaller shares, South America also registered a 23% increase. In the top ten export markets for Italianmanufacturers, notably pos - itive results have been observed in France, Spain, and Romania, as well as in Mexico and Turkey. Only Poland and India showed declines, despite both having enjoyed very favourable trends in previous pe - riods. The comparison with Germa- ny and China – Italy's two main competitors - reveals that their respective exports of machinery for plastics and rubber registered increases of 7.5% and 12.9% com- pared to 2022. Even when looking at the past decade, Italy's perfor- mance lies somewhere between that of its two primary competi- tors, totalling an average of 3.5%, compared to Germany's 2.9% and China's 9.0%. However, it is undeniable that the commercial pressure from Chi - na has been steadily intensifying over the past decade across all ma - jor geographical regions. At CHI- NAPLAST, held from 23 to 26 April, it was all the more evident that Chinese technology is advancing at a quick pace. This serves as an impetus for Italy to leverage its unique ability to develop increas - ingly innovative, flexible, and nat - urally performing solutions – also in terms of energy efficiency.