Metef 2017: Metals technologies create a bridge between innovative opportunities in India & Italy

Metef 2017 that took place in VERONA on 21-24 June 2017 is the greatest exhibitions on the metals sector in the SEMEA region.

The forum on cultural and trade exchanges between India and Italy highlighted the outstanding presence of Indian operators at Metef. The Italian manufacturers of products and technologies are at the forefront of the partnership with the Asiatic country, which is undergoing a fast economic and social growth.

India is a major producer of aluminium and Italy is a major producer of aluminium processing technologies: this alliance benefits both. This was the focus of the international meeting organized by Art Valley on June 23^th 2017  in association with AL Circle and A&L, chaired by Francesca Bruni and Alberto Cavicchiolo, president of Shonagon, and held during Metef, the exhibition of the aluminium and innovative metals industry currently under way in Verona. Institutions and entrepreneurs of both countries – historically connected since the times of the Roman Empire in terms of knowledge as well as cultural and commercial exchange – took part at the meeting.

Gloria Gangte, Acting Ambassador and delegate for the economic affairs at the Indian embassy in Italy, stressed this aspect during her opening speech and underlined the global growth of the world’s greatest democracy, now the third global economy, in purchasing power parity terms, and among the first three in terms of GDP within 2030.

“The Indian manufacturing industry ranks sixth among the most developed countries with a USD559 billion turnover, having reached electricity production surplus in 2015. India boasts the world’s second longest motorway network (5.5 million km) and the fourth railway network (114 million km), and this is one of the most promising sectors for Italy in India, currently present with about 600 companies, USD350 million of direct investments and a trade exchanges of USD7.5 million in 2016 (+2.7% over 2015),” she said.

Maurizio Sala, President of Amafond, added, “the Indian metallurgical industry is a crucial market for the Italian manufacturers of machinery and products” and was supported in his comment by Piero Starita of Laviosa Group, protagonist of an Italian-Indian joint venture that has been able to produce in India the additives needed during the foundry cycle nowadays exported to both Europe and the in all Asia and Australia.

Franco Zanardi, Vice-President of Assofond, reaffirmed the great prospects of the Italy-India relationship: “After the recent Global Summit, I have visited 14 Indian foundries and I was struck by their metallurgical competence. With Sinfonet, the network promoted by the Region Veneto, we are going to develop application-oriented research mainly focussing on aluminium and steel light alloys with the aim of supplying machinery and technological competence to the Indian entrepreneurs."

Indo-Italy transport and railways marketplace 

The railway division offers great prospects: this is what declared Claudio Maffioletti of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in India that backed Consorzio Ditecfer, in which FS Group holds an interest, to develop partnership projects in partnership with the Indian ministry of railways.

Veronica Bocci, coordinator of Ditecfer, explained that Italy is interested in the “Make with India”, that is producing “bottom-up” solutions with the Indians developed for the global improvement of the railway, the trains and the railway safety.

“We have planned retrofitting interventions to upgrade 40,000 carriages and to improve safety and safety standards on 11,000 miles of railway network,” she said.

Carmine Zappacosta, CEO of Italcertifer (FS Group), a cluster of four universities that supports Italfer in the development of railway projects said: “We aim at being suppliers of technology but also providers of the freight and passenger transport services because, unlike general certification bodies, we are the first ambassadors in the world of culture and of railway safety standards.”

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The debate also involved some well-known names  from the Indian entrepreneurial class such Vikas Devnani, head of AlCircle, who outlined the importance of the digital communications between the two countries.  Harssha Shetty, delegate from Vedanta, the world’s largest producer of aluminium with a 2.7 million tpa output, strongly confirmed: “We need basic competence in terms of research and technique and we believe Italy is a country that can offer much, since it needs much: the aluminium consumption in your Country has increased by twelve times over the last twenty years and the next generation will need 18 million tons of aluminium, only half of which coming from recycling. You need to intervene at a political level, also on the European arena, to lower import duties on this eco-sustainable raw material that is the material of the future.”