After its successful debut in 2016, the 2nd Fastener Fair Italy was held on 26 and 27 September 2018 at the MiCo of Milan, with a renewed content and much larger exhibition space.

 

More than 210 manufacturers of screws, bolts and fasteners took part in the event occupying the entire South Hall of the venue.

22% of exhibitors were foreign companies from 13 countries, in particular Germany, Turkey, United Kingdom and Spain. Manufacturers from Slovenia, Denmark, India, France and the United States were also present, albeit in smaller numbers.
 

The number of Italian manufacturers in attendance increased significantly compared to 2016.

 

In addition to the manufacturers, this 2nd edition of the Fair also saw the presence of leading industry associations with their own stands, including the Italian Union of Fastener Manufacturers (UPIVEB), the Italian Union of Fastener Distributors (UDIB) and the Italian Association of Metal Finishers (AIFM).
 

The quality of the visitors was also high, with 38% consisting of CEOs, partners and members of the Board of Directors, 17% of department heads and senior managers, 11% of engineers and technicians. While 18% of visitors came from  procurement and purchasing divisions.

 

The industrial sectors that showed great interest in the fair were the automotive industry, building industry, mechanical engineering industry, hardware and “DIY” retailers, electrical and household appliance industry, aerospace industry, agricultural machines and furniture manufacturers.

As part of the Fair, a series of highly successful technical-informative seminars were also organised, which were met with great success and interest.
 

Three sessions were organised by Fasten.it, partner of the fair, which took into account a series of very important issues for the market of screws, bolts and fasteners.


 

Conferences were held by A.I.F.M. (Italian Association of Metal Finishers), E.C.A.P. (European Consortium of Anchor Producers) and Kistler Group. In addition, some exhibitors presented and talked about their most innovative solutions. Conventya Group, Atotech Group, Frontline Filtration Technologies took part in the discussions and put forward the latest solutions to problems of interest for the screws, bolts and fasteners sector and related sectors.
 

We walked around the stands and gathered some feedback and impressions from the exhibitors.
 

“This 2nd edition of the fair,” emphasises Vilson Poppi, Purchase Director of VIPA, one of the largest Italian distributors of fasteners, “is certainly better than the first edition.”
 

“I noticed greater participation among exhibitors, especially Italian ones, as well as a greater influx of Italian and foreign visitors.”

 

Marco Pizzi, Sales Director of “Carlo Salvi” which produces machines for the manufacture of screws and bolts was also satisfied with this event. “I see a larger, richer fair with more visitors, especially from abroad. In short,” expresses Marco Pizzi, “I think this is a good replica of the first edition.”

 

Giovanni Pastorelli of MITOS, a medium-sized manufacturer of turned and forged metal parts, is also happy with this fair.

“This exhibition,” says Pastorelli,” gives us the opportunity to meet, in a short amount of time, many companies that are partly already our customers and to bring new business opportunities.


 

It also gives us the opportunity to contact suppliers that, let’s not forget, are also very important for our work.”

 

But in what economic context was this fair held?
 

For Marco Pizzi of “Carlo Salvi” one of the negative aspects undoubtedly remains the high cost of labour. For Paolo Dell’Era of Dell’Era Ermanno & Figlio srl, a company very active in the production of screws and bolts for the automotive sector, the threat lies in the political instability which is reflected in the overall economy and consequently in the market trends.

 

“The future challenge for our Customers”, says the Sales Management of SACMA, an Italian company  leader in the design and construction of machines for the production of screws/bolts and special components, “is the difficulty in finding qualified machine operators, therefore we at SACMA, the first in the world to do so, have set up “Technical Centres” in many strategic parts of the world where we supply a total customer support for the installation and the start-up of the machines but also a training program for the operators”. “In short,” emphasises SACMA Limbiate, “we are the only ones in the world to provide the machine, if requested, with a training program in the customer’s language to not only add value to SACMA, but above all the customers”.

 

All the operators we approached expressed their satisfaction with the trend of labour which has been very positive since the beginning of 2018 until before the holidays, after which there was a slowdown in the flow of orders.


 

This physiological trend should be followed by a phase of recovery on condition that, however, the political component is a stimulus through a phase of stability.


 

All the operators, however, said they were optimistic about the future trend of labour, even if there are doubts and perplexities about the international political situation, and in particular the national one.

 

The 3rd Fastener Fair Italy has been scheduled for 11 and 12 November 2020. 
 

The exhibition will be held in the Fiera Milano City, and there is already a high demand for exhibition space.
 

50 exhibitors have already reconfirmed their participation in the next Fastener Fair Italy to be held in 2020, with about 1,900 square metres already booked. To meet the strong demand, it has been decided to hold the next edition in Pavilion 3 which is much larger, so as to offer more exhibition space.
 

While the 2nd edition of the Fastener Fair Italy ended successfully in Italy, the first edition of the Fastener Fair France took place on 28 -29 November 2018 at the Paris Expo of Porte Versailles. Fastener Fairs are a series of trade shows organised in six countries, namely: Germany, Italy, Turkey, United States, Mexico and India, with the current addition of France, whose aim is to promote and spread the knowledge of fastener technology worldwide. Italy’s participation in the first Fastener Fair both in terms of visitors and exhibitors was quite considerable.