Wire associations
Italian Wire Machinery Manufacturers' recent meeting: ‘Milan to host Wire & Cable conference in 2023’
The latest conference reserved for members of ACIMAF, the Association of Italian Wire Machinery Manufacturers, was held on October 18, 2022, in the splendid setting of the Villa Cordevigo Relais & Chateaux in Cavaion Veronese (Verona, Italy).
The convention offered a prime opportunity to take stock of the performance of the wire and cable industries, thanks to the speeches of prominent guests, such as Steve Fetteroll and James R. York of the Wire Association International, Alessia Bianchi of the Italian Trade Agency ITA/ICE, Paolo Bricco, special correspondent of the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Gabriele Campo of BCUBE, and Silvia Lambertini of Promos Italia.
ACIMAF President Ferruccio Bellina opened the proceedings with a special announcement: 'Following the success of the international Wire & Cable Verona 2019 conference, we are pleased to inform all industry professionals that we will be hosting Wire & Cable 2023 in Milan. Together with our friends from WAI, who collaborated with us for the last edition, and ITA/ICE, who greatly encouraged us at the Verona conference, we will organize this international meeting in the prestigious venue of Palazzo Giureconsulti in Milan. The gala evening will instead take place at the historic Palazzo Serbelloni'. Soon the call for papers will be launched, strictly of a technical-scientific nature, to maintain the event's high profile.
'We have had an ongoing partnership with ACIMAF for 20 years now,' confirmed Steve Fetteroll, Executive Director of WAI, 'We are pleased to give our contribution, also because the focus of our association lies precisely in education and training'.
WAI President James R. York, also Senior VP of Insteel – the largest U.S. manufacturer of steel wire reinforcing products for concrete constructions applications – gave a speech on the state of the U.S. steel wire industry: ‘The American industry remains strong. Many measures of economic activity are growing, albeit at a slower pace. Consumer spending remains positive and unemployment is at historic lows’. Sore point: inflation. 'It is a major concern, driven mostly by rising housing and labor costs. The residential construction market is down; we expect stimuli from the Infrastructure Bill approved a year ago, which needs to be applied in practice'.
How does the wire market fare? Wire rod stocks have grown considerably in the last period, with one million tons entering the market in July alone by direct imports, which are on the rise.
Among the major countries of origin, Canada stands out by far, followed at some distance by India, Algeria, and Mexico. Demand in some segments has softened somewhat, especially those related to real estate, construction, and home appliances. As a result, wire rod purchases are expected to slow down in Q4, partly due to high inventory levels. For those interested, here is Mr. York's report in pdf.
Also speaking at the ACIMAF event was Gabriele Campo, Commercial and Business Development Manager at BCUBE, a company specializing in advanced logistics services, with a report on "Logistics and International Shipping - State of the Art - Possible Scenarios and New Solutions''; in his pitch, Mr. Campo addressed the topic of the transition from product centricity to customer centricity, which entails the evolution from logistics service provider to true service partner.
Next, Alessia Bianchi of ITA/ICE shifted the focus to the Agency's initiatives to support the overseas promotion and internationalization of Italian companies. She explained that Italian SMEs play a leading role on international markets. Exporting SMEs (more than 123,000 throughout Italy) show the greater size and better performance in terms of turnover per employee and productivity, since the exposure to international competition helps select the most structured and efficient companies.
Paolo Bricco, a well-known journalist from Il Sole 24 Ore, presented a paper entitled 'Manufacturing on the edge. The strategic role of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. The ordeal of the energy costs and the unknown of raw materials'. 'We are in the midst of a historical break with the past, a paradigm shift comparable to 1989.' Bricco traced all the stages from 2001, when China joined the WTO, until today, passing through the great recession of 2008, the sovereign debt crisis of 2011-2012, and the pandemic. 'Nowadays, many people talk about deglobalization; it is a condition imposed by the predominant role of China and the loss of importance of the EU in the international arena.' What about the war in Ukraine? 'It caused the recession in European countries, triggered by the monstrous increase in energy costs.' The problem, says Bricco, is not just the economy but also politics and identity. Scholz has issued 200 billion euros in support of the German economy; Macron has announced the nationalization of the energy utility EDF; Italy has no spending margin and has to stand by and watch. We will see if Europe can take joint initiatives to address this issue in a unified way.
One fact alone is enough to understand the gravity of the situation: while in January energy costs in Italy (coal, gas, electricity) were worth 30 percent of the production costs of a ton of steel, by September 2022, this share had risen to 45 percent.
Also present at the conference was Silvia Lambertini from Promos Italia, the national agency of the Chambers of Commerce system supporting Italian companies with training services, business matching, digital export solutions, foreign investment attraction, and territorial development projects. As a partner of ACIMAF, already at Wire & Cable in Verona - which, we recall, catalyzed 250 delegates from 27 countries - Lambertini gave a taste of what Wire & Cable Milan 2023 will be.
The appointment is set for October 16, 2023, in Milan; we at expometals.net will make sure to keep you in the loop on upcoming news!
