Cooperating with India While Considering the Tariff War

The Indo-Italian MetalHub event organized in Milan by ART VALLEY in partnership with Alluminio & Leghe magazine and sponsored by the Lombardy Region was a great success

by Alberto Pomari

On July 2nd, the Lombardy Region building hosted the Indo-Italian MetalHub event, a project by Art Valley by Francesca Bruni and Alberto Cavicchiolo in partnership with A&L and the international METEF aluminium trade show, and patronized by the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Economics and States division), the Italian Embassy in New Delhi in India, AAI, the Aluminium Association of India, and the Odisha Government, dedicated to the cooperation between the Indian and Italian districts in the metal and materials engineering domain, with a special focus on aluminium. The event, held in Milan, which had an interesting prologue in India in January 2018 as reported in the past issues of Alluminio & Leghe magazine, was held at the Belvedere viewpoint of the Panoramic Hall on the 39th of the headquarters of the Lombardy Region, an unusual and charming standpoint with an incredible all-round view of the whole city of Milan; an exceptional framework for a significant moment full of prospects regarding the interaction between India and Italy in the meta and material engineering domain. Expectations were completely met, it was an intense day, very successful and with the participation of trade operators to discuss and exchange views on crucial and very hot topics such as the geographical and political context of raw materials, the access to raw materials, the development of the aluminium downstream, circular economy and the comparison between two districts with strong manufacturing traditions in the field of the light metal, the Indian Odisha district and the Italian area whose centre is the industrial district between Piedmont, Lombardy and the Veneto and Emilia-Romagna regions. In this field India, according to the data provided by the IMF for GNP with purchasing power parity, is already the third economy on the planet, and Italy can share ideas in an interesting exchange of advanced technologies, know-how and training contributions. The day’s works dealt particularly with the possible complementary aspects and technical, technological, plant and market synergies between the two countries’ industrial system; the focus was of course on aluminium, considering that Italy with a consumption of the light metal of over 2 million tons a year, is Europe’s second player, while India is set to become an economic macro-region dedicated to the world’s most complete aluminium upstream, from bauxite to primary metal, and is engaged in the growth of an adequate downstream in rolling, extrusion, casting foundry and end uses. The Italian industrial associations Amafond, Assomet Centroal and Assofond took part directly in the event, while others who cooperated from the very start of the project, besides A&L magazine and METEF, were FACE Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe, the Indian Embassy in Rome, the Italian General Consulate in Kolkata, FICCI, Al Circle, FOSMI, Fed, Small Medium Enterprises India, the Indian Aluminium Association IAA, DITECFER (District for Rail Technologies, High Speed, Safety & Security), and Danieli & C. who guaranteed a special support to the Indo-Italian MetalHub project and to the Milan event.