Tecnargilla 2018 confirms its world leadership

Held in the Rimini exhibition centre from 24 to 28 September, this year’s Tecnargilla reaffirmed its status as the world’s most important exhibition of technologies for the ceramic and brick industries. The biennial show fully met the expectations of the organisers (IEG-Italian Exhibition Group and Acimac) in terms of both attendance and the response of exhibitors and visitors to the changes introduced this year.

The exhibition layout was completely redesigned to enable visitors to get the most out of the show and to enhance the value of certain product sectors. One new aspect that proved especially popular was the transfer of the Kromatech section to the more central hall C1 adjacent to the Ceramic Workshop area. The two new sections T-Finishing and Greentech were also a big success, the first devoted to ceramic tile finishing and occupying a total of 3 halls and the second dedicated to energy saving solutions and held in hall A3. Greentech also hosted Green Arena, the new conference area used by a number of exhibitor companies to present the results of studies and research projects.

Tecnargilla also reaffirmed its world leadership in terms of the number and international scope of exhibitors with more than 400 companies hosted in an exhibition space of around 80,000 square metres and showcased an unparalleled range of technological innovations for all stages of the tile, sanitaryware and brick production processes. Hardly surprisingly, the key topics of this edition were industry 4.0 and digital technologies, environmental sustainability, design and aesthetics.

The show also met the organisers’ expectations in terms of numbers and quality of professional visitors, who travelled to Rimini from more than 100 countries. Besides Italy, the best represented countries were Spain, China, Turkey, India, Russia, Brazil, Germany, Iran and Poland. The sharp growth in numbers of visitors from newly developed countries such as Belarus, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Philippines reflected the important role of Tecnargilla for ceramic industry professionals the world over. This contrasted with a fall in numbers of visitors from several important ceramic producing countries (Turkey, Iran, Thailand, Algeria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia and Morocco) due to adverse economic, social or industrial scenarios.

Exhibitors were particularly pleased with the quality of the international buyers, most of whom were company owners or top managers who came to Rimini with specific investments in mind. A large number of contracts were secured directly at the show and numerous partnerships were established with new customers that will lead to major orders in the near future.

In the video: the comments of Lorenzo Cagnoni (Chairman of IEG) and Paolo Gambuli (Acimac Director) on the results of the exhibition.