At the annual meeting of Assocomaplast (the Italian trade association which groups together 160 manufacturers of machinery, moulds and equipment for plastics and rubber) held on the 6th June, the group’s President, Giorgio Colombo, confirmed the dates of the next Plast trade show, which will be held in Milan from 5 to 9 May 2015. This means that the show will begin immediately after the start of EXPO 2015. The organiser says it hopes that this concomitance with the world exhibition will have a “catalysing effect” on the trade show.

Mr. Colombo went on to stress that Italian manufacturers of machinery, equipment and moulds for plastics and rubber must continue to innovate in view of the ongoing slump of the domestic market.

Recalling the Italian sector’s results for 2012 — production output at €4 billion, around the same as in 2011, and exports up 6% to nearly 2.6 billion — Mr. Colombo emphasised that it continues to be foreign sales (which account for around 65% of the total) that are sustaining the industry.

This idea was also taken up by Professor Marco Fortis (of Università Cattolica, and Vice-President of the Edison Foundation), who claimed that the perceived weakness of the Italian market may be due in part to overly-stringent austerity policies adopted by governments. His claim was that these policies are “crippling the manufacturing sector”, which, he said, needs an immediate and energetic impulse to thrust it out of the current recession.

To support the Italian companies in this sector, Assocomaplast has scheduled a series of promotional events, including trade show appearances, workshops and B2B technical seminars and buyer missions. The group will be represented at K 2013.