Technical textiles and nonwovens are two sectors which have found an increasingly greater number of applications in recent years, even in Brazil. The local market is developing at a fast pace, and many local textile manufacturers are now concentrating on this type of production.

According to a recent survey conducted by IEMI, a brazilian consulting firm, the two sectors (nonwovens and technical textiles) account for well over 200 companies currently operating in Brazil, employing roughly 40,000 people. Total estimated production for 2008 amounted to 462,000 tons, for a value of 3.9 billion Brazilian Reais. For the same year, over 160 million Reais were invested in modernizing and/or acquiring new machinery (a value of about 4% of annual revenues). Exports of products for these two sectors in 2008 totalled 269 million US Dollars.

These figures bear witness to the growing interest of machinery manufacturers in this industry. In an effort to place Italian technology in the spotlight, ACIMIT (Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers) and ICE (Italian Trade Commission) have organized a technology symposium to be held in Sao Paolo next March 4th and 5th, 2010.

About fifteen Italian textile machinery manufacturers will present their latest technology proposals in Sao Paolo to a public comprising Brazilian operators in the technical textiles and nonwovens sector.

This encounter represents a further meeting point between Italy’s textile machinery industry and Brazil’s textile sector, which over the years have developed a strong partnership, as demonstrated by the value of Italian sales of machinery to Brazil. In fact, for the period running from 2004-2008, Italian exports of textile machinery in Brazil increased at a pace of 13% annually, reaching a value of 72 million Euros in 2008, thus ranking Brazil fourth among foreign markets for Italy’s textile machinery sector.

The most recent figures, relative to January to September 2009, indicate that Italian exports to Brazil amounted to 23 million Euros. Italian machinery most in demand in the Brazilian market are finishing machinery (32%), followed by accessories (26%) and knitting machines (21%).

The Italian participants at the workshop are a small sample of the substantial number of Italian companies operating in this sector.

ACIMIT represents an industrial sector comprising roughly 300 companies employing 14,000 people, which produces machinery for an overall value of 2.5 billion Euros. The quality of the Italian textile technology is testified by the high number of Countries where the Italian machinery are sold: about 130. Exports represent 78% of total sales. Asia (with a share of 43%) is the main destination for Italian sector exports, followed by Europe (34%), Latin America (11%), Africa (7%) and North America (5%).