Italy's ACIMALL to participate in WoodWorking Middle East

ACIMALL has over 210 companies as members and represents 90% of the Italian Woodworking Machinery and Tools Manufacturing industry. It is actively involved in Federmacchine - the federation that brings together 11 national associations representing as many branches of the machine tools industry - and Eumabois, the European federation gathering the representative of 12 national associations, whereby ACIMALL is the Eumabois Secretariat.

"The aim of ACIMALL is to promote the knowledge of Italian technology throughout the world and also to provide member companies with qualified support concerning the main corporate issues," said Ing. Dario Corbetta, Marketing Manager of ACIMALL, in a press statement.

"ACIMALL is an authoritative and qualified partner for the national and international institutions that deal with the woodworking machinery industry," he said.

In 2004, the Italian WoodWorking Machinery and Tool Manufacturing industry included 300 companies with 12 thousand employees and had a total turnover of 1.588 million Euros. Over 80 % of it was attributed to exports.

The Italian industry of woodworking machinery is one of the most advanced in the world. It has a 27% share of the world market with total exports of over 1.1 billion Euros, placing Italy in the second place after Germany.

"The prospects for development of this sector in the Middle East, particularly the UAE, are very bright given the construction boom that the region is currently experiencing," said Ing. Corbetta.

"The range of machinery offered by the Italian Woodworking industry is the largest in the world. It is not restricted to the phases of the initial working of timber, but also covers more complex production systems like optimising exploitation of timber through tomographic analysis of material to be cut, numerically controlled integrated machinery for manufacture of finished products, and advanced adhesive technologies to final varnishing and treating systems. This is a complete system of products, processes and instruments, that would be able to fulfill the needs of the growing Middle East WoodWorking industry," he said.

According to Ing Corbetta, technology was one of the major forces that drove Italy to becoming a top wood-based material exporter today.

In 2004, the value of production in the Italian wood industry exceeded 38.1 billion Euro, with a 32.4% export share. The lion's share in it was that of furniture with 22.8 billion Euro with 47.9% attributed to exports.

Currently, the Italian wood and furniture industry includes 83,000 companies with 412,000 employees of which 36,000 companies with 233,000 employees are in the furniture industry.

WoodWorking Middle East, which is the region's first trade platform for the woodworking industry, is being organised by Expo Centre Sharjah with the support of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The event will be a focused platform showcasing wood, woodworking machinery, tools & equipment, consumables and furniture accessories. The displays will cover the entire range of veneers, plywood, laminates, glues, lacquers, fittings, accessories and supplies for woodworking machineries and consumables.

The visitors to the show will be the carpenters, joinery managers, furniture manufacturers, kitchen equipment manufacturers, shop fitting specialists, fenestration manufacturers, exhibition stand contractors, carpentry shop managers of construction companies, architects, general managers, procurement managers, estimators, and planning and design managers from the regional woodworking industry.