Maurizio Radici, RadiciGroup Vice Chairman and COO, has been elected President of Assofibre CIRFS Italia, the Italian Man-made and Synthetic Fibres Association, which is a sector association of Federchimica, the Italian Chemical Industry Federation...

Maurizio Radici, RadiciGroup Vice Chairman and COO, has been elected President of Assofibre CIRFS Italia, the Italian Man-made and Synthetic Fibres Association, which is a sector association of Federchimica, the Italian Chemical Industry Federation.

In accepting his mandate, Mr. Radici pointed out the role of synthetic fibres in textile innovation: “The goal we must pursue, also at the European level, is a fully integrated textile production chain. In this endeavour, man-made fibres – synthetic and chemical ones – will play a fundamental role. In fact, they already make the most important contribution to technological innovation, which is absolutely vital if the European textile manufacturing industry wants to compete with the lower-cost production of Asian countries. This role will become an even more decisive factor for Italy, where synthetic fibres will have to serve as an indispensable link in the production chain, if we want to keep our leadership position in textiles and apparel.”
These topics were discussed during the Assofibre annual meeting at a session with European industry association leaders, Giorgio Squinzi, president of the Cefic (chemicals) Executive Committee, and Alberto Paccanelli, president of Euratex (textiles and apparel). It was agreed that teamwork among chemicals, fibres and textiles was needed to address commercial matters (anti-dumping, reciprocity with non-EU countries, “made in” labelling and rules of origin), as well as innovation and sustainability issues.

Additionally, Mr. Radici brought up the role of fibres in sustainability. Consumption of textile fibres is continuously on the rise worldwide, and demand cannot be met by natural fibres without creating a great imbalance in the disposition of available resources (land, water and energy).

Mr. Radici succeeds Paolo Piana (Sinterama Spa), who led the association for the past six years. Mr. Piana stressed that the Italian man-made fibres industry had the ability “to change and courageously tackle the challenges of the global marketplace, while maintaining its advanced technological capabilities, because of its incomparable wealth of managers, experience and market knowledge.”



09 March 2011