The best of Italian-made mechanics and automation will be made available to the Russian market, which offers important opportunities for strengthening leading market positions and interesting new trade development prospects. The outstanding setting for this is Metalloobrabotka (www.metobr-expo.ru), the biennial event dedicated to machine tools and auxiliary technologies that will be held in Moscow from 24 to 28 May and which has now reached its 11th edition.

The Italian collective, co-ordinated by the Italian Trade Commission in collaboration with the UCIMU trade association, will be composed of 36 companies that will offer quality, competence and a complete overview of the innovations made possible by the very latest technologies. The new developments from the companies’ research and development sectors will be the decisive factor in the event. The previous edition involved the participation of 770 exhibitors from 31 different countries, arranged over a 31,000 m² floor area in the Expocentr Exhibition Centre, and had more than 41,000 visitors (10,000 of whom were foreigners). Attempts will therefore be made in the Italian pavilion this year to repeat the success of the 2008 edition, in which the companies that participated expressed their satisfaction with the business deals that were made, the opportunities that were set up for industrial collaboration with Russian partners and the large numbers of visitors. As well as the Russian market, the event involves that of the entire ex-Soviet area, allowing market horizons to be widened.

Many new features will be presented: from a wide range of innovative products for metal forming, such as Servopro technology with coupled high-torque/low RPM servomotors for stamping press applications to instruments for monitoring machine vibrations, transducers and transmitters. There will also be no shortage of equipment for universal and hydraulic punch presses, notching machines and mobile column milling machines.There will also be moulds for folding presses, high-capacity telescopic guides and latest-generation machine-cleaning technologies (spray cleaning, immersion cleaning and the so-called cleanliness testers).

It is difficult to say, therefore, which products will attract the most attention at Metaloobrabotka, because the range offered by the Italian companies will be so diversified and complete that visitors will be spoilt for choice. On the other hand, the mechanical sector is one of the most important for the Italian economy and has the advantage of being spread across the entire national territory, rather than being concentrated in a few specific regions. The challenge of new export opportunities for the Italian companies begins, therefore, with Moscow, and includes the best from Great Britain, which has very large industrial realities, and Germany, which is known for its use of advanced technology.