Not Pre-crisis Level Yet
Bruno Ameline stated that as French firms is generally in SME form, they cannot make investment and good service in every country; instead, they reach customers by local representatives and experts. Informing that the French SME-level machine manifacturers are exposed to a harsh election process while focusing on the global market and determining their time, energy and financial resources, Ameline said; “So, all of our firms cannot joinall the fairs within the global market, we give them a place on national booths of UCMTF. However, they attain special importance to attendance in ITMA fairs”.
Making statements on the situation of French machinery manifacturers in the global market, Ameline recorded that in American and European markets, the global economic pre-crisis sales numbers could not be reached yet, but there is a forward reaction since 2010.
Reminding ITMA Barcelona 2011 to have been a very successful and active fair, Ameline stated that textile producers came with many attracting project demands and a great number of orders were taken. According to Ameline’ s statement, financial difficulties still continue and textile producers direct to long term projects rather than short profits. Ameline implied that while firms want to proceed on new markets and to develop their current markets, they plan to invest with regards to optimizing their own production processes. Ameline continued; “Textile manifacturers move in a more limited way because of the economical regression in Europe, even in China. USA seems to enter a path for economical improvement again. Another obstacle fort he investments is credit crunch”. Telling that they focus on 2012 as industry ans 2013 still has a limited view, Ameline infprmed that their long term strategy is an increase in industrial efficiency and re-organization of machine industry so that it may gain a more active structure in France and all over the world.
Ameline said that they are optimistic with regards to these strategies and their industry continue innovation and development. Ameline gave information about long-term plans of UCMTF members as such; “In terms of R&D, UCMTF has an active presentation that encourages energy saving. We, as the association, encourage our members’ participation in textile fairs and events, we are working for their being in a close contact with textile media. Recently, we have started a very important program that aims to increase our members’ spare parts services for their customers. Another aim of our association, which has a collective viewpoint, is introducing our industry in engineering and management schools. We are arranging a forum fort his reason and we are giving awards”.
Turkey is Strategic Market
Bruno Ameline, underlining that Turkey market has always been important for them, reminded that they attended in ITM Istanbul this year, held between 21-24 April, as potently as in the previous years. He said; “We regard Turkey as a strategical market” and continued; “Beside the fairs, we also arrange local events in Turkey. We had organized a conference in Gaziantep and in Aleppo, Syria in October 2010. Huge attention of industrial representatives to our event in Gaziantep, which has a rapid growth in carpet industry, satisfied us. We were quite amazed of the region’ s dynamic structure. We are happy for being their 4th biggest textile machinery supplier and for long term collaboration with them”.
