Pietro Cassani, President of Acimac
The Italian ceramic machinery manufacturers believe in the upswing and go with innovation
The Italian machinery and plant suppliers for the ceramics industry have also been hit by the worldwide financial and economic crisis. We spoke to Pietro Cassani, President of Acimac (Association of the Italian Manufacturers of Machinery and Equipment for Ceramics Industry) and General Manager at Sacmi. Topics covered in our interview were the current situation of the industry, its prospects for 2010 and the two trade fairs Ceramitec and Tecnargilla.
Zi: We are now in the fourth quarter of this difficult year 2009. How severely have the Italian machinery and plant suppliers to the ceramics industry been hit by the crisis?
Pietro Cassani: 2009 will be a difficult year for our industry, like the final months of the previous year, when the long-sustained positive trend suddenly and unexpectedly broke off. The first nine months of the current year have brought declines in orders and sales of between 25 and 50% for the majority of the Italian companies that supply the tile industry. Positive, on the other hand, is the trend for machine...
