Getting diverse industry groups to work together in the attainment of a common objective can be an intimidating task. Mario Maggiani oversees the association of Italy’s plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers AMAPLAST, which promotes the interest of its 170 members around the world.
Apart from AMAPLAST, Maggiani also manages two other industry groups: ACIMAC (Italian Ceramic Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association) and UCIMA (Union of Italian Manufacturers of Automatic Packing and Packaging Machines).
While the job of steering those three separate entities appears daunting, the trained economist and political scientist gets much satisfaction from knowing he is able to get them to work together and achieve positive results for Italy’s industrial sector.
“I always explain to our members that they have to cooperate in order for them to perform better in the foreign market. So, they can cooperate on joint ventures because it will always be a benefit for them and for the sectors they are in,” he told GMI POST.
While those three sectors suffered a certain downturn because of the COVID-19 pandemic, members have been able to recover in 2021 and 2022, with many manufacturers coming together to relaunch production and sell their goods abroad. Maggiani is optimistic that Italy will keep its place as one of the world’s manufacturing powerhouses.
“We have to consider that we will always be No. 1 or No. 2 in terms of manufacturing sectors at a worldwide level. To go into more detail, Italy is first in the world in machinery packaging and also at the top in the global plastics machinery sector,” he said.
While Italy faces stiff competition, especially from Asia, because of production costs, Maggiani believes Italian companies can still rely on their reputation for reliability, quality, flexibility, which are highly valued in many countries, especially Japan.
