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ITALIAN MACHINES FOR WOOD
Rome - (Ign) - The first producers launched their products on the national market in the 1920s. The Italian furniture industry certainly did not have the size and reputation that it has today, but many small craft industries had begun mass production, albeit on a small scale. When the first industrial furniture manufacturers were set up in Brianza, the area north of Milan towards the Alps, they needed machinery to cut and process wood which were reliable, precise, and, above all, fast, in order to achieve effective scale economies. Great interest was shown in manufacturers from Germany and Austria, who for some years had been producing modern electric machinery, but also in Italy a few workshops had begun to realise cutting and processing systems. These were the first steps in what, over the next few decades, would become one of the world's leading industries in the sector of woodworking machinery. Still today, Italy is an undisputed leader in terms of product quality, innovation and the ability to respond to the needs of the market.
In 1996, in Milan, Acimall (www.acimall.com), The Italian Association of Manufacturers of Woodworking Machinery and Accessories was set up. At the beginning there were only a few dozen members, but numbers have continued to grow up to the present-day. It now includes 300 important companies, accounting for a total of 12,000 jobs; a total turnover of around €1.5 billion, over 80% of which is realised on international markets; a commercial system based on a number of important international shows and, at the same time, on a dense network of agencies and offices which make it possible for the many Italian brands in the sector to be present in almost all the countries of the world.
This success is built on the ability to constantly invent new technological solutions, and to offer a constantly efficient answer to changing user demands, but also to adopt all the innovations which electronics, numerical control systems, laser technologies, and non-invasive control processes have made available. This, naturally, has taken place while also responding positively to the increasingly stringent safety regulations regarding the use of machinery, which became law first in Europe and the United States and, subsequently in many other countries. This is extremely expensive, and in many cases has involved redesigning important elements in the production systems.
Today, despite the difficulties of an international economic slump and an exchange rate between euros and US dollars which penalises exports from Europe, the Italian woodworking machinery industry maintains a solid position as an international leader. Italian exports towards the other countries of the EU account for around € 500 million per year, while those destined to the non-EU European countries are in continuous growth, reaching in 2003 an overall value of over €250 million. Naturally, the American market is also extremely important, where Italian industries, despite the problems linked to the exchange rate, export products worth over € 200 million. This then is a picture which reflects the difficulties of international trade, which confirms Italy as second in the worldwide league table of exporters, with a quota of 20% of the world market, straight after Germany (29%), but well ahead of other countries present on international markets, such as Japan (6%), Taiwan (12%) and the United States (5%).
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