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Home > GERMANY > Akzente
Machinery for the glass industry: Italian is better
Rome - (Ign) - According to historians, glass working in Italy dates back to the fourth century BC, in small Etruscan workshops between Tuscany and Lazio. From there, the skill was handed down and, during the Roman Empire, grew in size and importance. The craft achieved new heights in the Venice of the Doges, where some of the most beautiful and sought-after pieces of blown glass in the world are still produced today. So, basically, the art of glass working has ancient roots in Italy - almost as old as the very civilisation from which the country descends. However, this is not sufficient to explain why Italy is home to one of the largest and, above all, most qualified industries for the production of machinery and accessories for glass production. Because in many other regions of the world, such as Bohemia, Asia, Anatolia and Russia, glass working has, over the centuries, achieved similar and at times higher levels than those of Italy, yet in none of these countries has such a solid industrial system arisen. Italy's success can perhaps be explained by the combination of a glass working tradition, certainly, and the ingenuity and skill dedicated to the construction of machinery and working utensils.
In effect, Italy is the world leader in many sectors in the vast world of instrumental goods manufacture. This always occurs when there is optimum synergy between machinery manufacturers and users. It is thus no surprise that this also holds true for glass working machinery, a field in which Italian industry (www.gimav.it) is the undisputed leader on many markets and a benchmark in terms of product innovation, technological development, machinery reliability, and quality. This is, in fact, a sector in continuous growth, which exports around three-quarters of annual production to the vast majority of the world's markets. In 2004, foreign sales of machinery and accessories for the glass industry were in fact up on the previous year by almost 9%, achieving levels of around €830 million. In detail, around €590 million came from sales of machinery for the production of glass sheets and 240 million from those for systems dedicated to blown glass. Around 38% of the sales were to countries of the European Union, 20% to other European countries and 23% to Asia.
But if we analyse Italian exports in the sector by country, we see that Russia is the leading customer, with almost 10% of overall sales, followed closely by China, with 9.4%, on the same level as France and in front of Spain (7.8%) and the United States (6.8%). An important change has taken place in recent years, if we consider that traditionally the countries of the European Union and the USA were the major customers of Italian industry in the sector. The fact that they have been overtaken by Russia and China is even more important if we consider that sales to the most traditional and loyal customers have not fallen, but actually grown. Basically, the data confirms excellent commercial performance, demonstrating that the Italian industry of instrumental goods - one of the most dynamic in the West - has always been able to innovate and adapt to changing market needs.
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