About 90 Italian exhibitors including over 40 machinery manufacturers will be present at the latest edition of Index, the world’s leading nonwovens exhibition, which is set to take place from April 18–21, 2023 in Geneva. Once again, the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in cooperation with the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) has organised an exhibition space reserved for companies manufacturing machinery for the textile sector.

There will be 12 exhibiting companies in the Italian pavilion (hall no. 4, booths no. 4131 and 4137). Of these, the ACIMIT members are Bematic, Bombi, Bonino, Dell’Orco & Villani, Ferraro, Loptex, Ommi, Rf Systems, Texera, and Zappa Macchine. Other ACIMIT member companies will display their offerings in their own booths, the association said in a press release.

The nonwovens sector has grown significantly in recent years. According to the European Disposables and Nonwovens Association (EDANA), after the previous year’s impressive growth, the production volume of nonwovens grew by 2 per cent in 2021, exceeding 3 million tonnes.

“The growth in nonwovens production has also driven the demand of machinery for nonwovens,” commented Alessandro Zucchi, president of the ACIMIT. “The Italian technological supply has consequently expanded. At Index23, the presence of a significant number of Italian machinery manufacturers testifies their desire to play a leading role also in the production of machinery for nonwovens.”

The trend of Italian exports indicates the strong increase in the production of nonwovens machinery. In 2021, Italian sales abroad reached a value of €102 million (77 per cent over the previous year) and in the first nine months of 2022, the value of Italian exports stood at €92 million.