#Associations

2019-11-06

French Machinery: Christian Guinet, new Secretary General.

At last ITMA in Barcelona, the French Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (UCMTF in French) announced the appointment of Christian Guinet as Secretary General. On September 1, he took over from Evelyne Cholet who had decided to retire.

Bruno Ameline, the president stated “it is a great opportunity for us to welcome Christian. He fits all our requirements: a textile engineer, he joined one of our members in 1982, a great part of his experience has been as export manager in charge of the sales financing and credit insurance. We know each other very well as, within our organization, he has been President of our Promotion Committee. In that position, he organized, with Evelyne Cholet, our road shows, seminars and National pavilions in many fairs and managed our relations with the textile press.

The transition with Evelyne Cholet has been extremely smooth as they had been working together for many years.

The only sad thing, Bruno Ameline adds is that we will miss Evelyne. She joined our association in 1985 to organize ITMA 1987 and then stayed with us for 34 years. All our contacts know and appreciate her. I am quite sure they will welcome Christian who shares the same values than Evelyne. He will be a great asset to our 35 members which are exporting, all over the world, most of their machines and services worth more than a billion dollars annually.

For more information about French Machinery, please visit:

https://www.ucmtf.com

UCMTF Secretary General Christian Guinet (c) 2019 UCMTF

UCMTF members will present latest solutions that address the main trends

ITM 2024 is a great opportunity to meet in person, at the highest level, to find and offer the best solutions. Of course, there are some main trends: sustainability, raw materials, energy and water savings, recycling, digitalization, cloud computing, artificial Intelligence, cost efficiency etc. Another main trend for UCMTF members is act as a local partner wherever the customers are located.

Young talents honoured – 60 years Walter Reiners Foundation

At the Techtextil trade fair in Frankfurt at the end of April, Peter D. Dornier, chairman of the VDMA’s Walter Reiners Foundation, presented awards to five successful young engineers. Promotion and sustainability awards were presented in the categories of bachelor’s/project theses and diploma/master’s theses. Academic theses are eligible for the sustainability awards if, for example, they develop solutions for resource-efficient products and technologies.

BTMA backs global growth while investing in future UK leaders

As one of a number of new initiatives launched this year, the British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA) is launching the UK-India Textile Machinery Coalition. The UK-India Free Trade Agreement, signed in July 2025, has implications that extend across sourcing, competitiveness and long-term trade dynamics, believes BTMA CEO Jason Kent.

China projected to increase cotton production, yields, and imports in 2026/27

World cotton production in the 2026/27 season is projected at 25.9 million tonnes, exceeding global consumption of 25.2 million tonnes, according to the May 2026 issue of Cotton This Month. That means both production and consumption are expected to remain close to current season levels, while global cotton trade is projected to decline by 2.7% to approximately 9.6-9.7 million tonnes.

SOKO presents low-impact denim finishing innovations at Denim PV Milan

SOKO will present a range of sustainable denim finishing technologies and collaborative projects at the upcoming Denim Première Vision Milan on 20–21 May in Milan. At booth G27 in Superstudio Più, the company will showcase new chemical solutions designed to combine fashionable denim effects with reduced environmental impact.

Kornit Digital announces commercial availability of Atlas MATRIX following successful global Beta program

Kornit Digital (NASDAQ: KRNT, "Kornit Digital", "Kornit", or the "Company"), a global leader in sustainable, on-demand digital fashion and textile production technologies, today announced the commercial availability of the Atlas MATRIX platform following the successful completion of a global beta program across leading production environments in Europe and North America. The announcement, made ahead of FESPA 2026 in Barcelona, marks a major milestone in the evolution of digital apparel production.

“We clearly see that reliability, flexibility, service and total cost of ownership are becoming increasingly important again.”

The nonwovens industry continues to face a challenging market environment. Nevertheless, AUTEFA Solutions reports successful projects, new line sales and growing demand for energy-efficient and flexible solutions. In this interview, André Imhof of AUTEFA Solutions talks about competitiveness against Chinese suppliers, new service and recycling concepts, the growing importance of application development and the opportunities created by countercyclical investments.

“Needle punching technology is more universal and sustainable than ever!”

Needle punching technology was long regarded as a rather traditional and comparatively slow technology within the nonwovens industry. In this interview, Johann Philipp Dilo explains why needle punching is more relevant than ever today – ranging from energy efficiency and resource conservation to hygiene applications, new machine concepts and design-oriented nonwoven solutions.