Wire associations
ACIMAF conference ahead of Wire & Cable Padua 2027: uncertainty, AI, and the US market
ACIMAF, the association of Italian wire and cable machinery manufacturers, held its members’ conference on October 9 at Antica Fratta in Monticelli Brusati (Brescia), moderated by Paolo Bricco, essayist and special correspondent for Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading business daily. The morning focused on what weighs most on Italian machine builders today: markets that are harder to reach, energy and raw material costs, and technological innovation. It also looked ahead to Wire & Cable Padua 2027, the international conference ACIMAF is co-organizing with WAI.
The US market and cooperation with WAI
David Fisher, President of the Wire Association International (WAI), presented a report on the US wire and cable industry for 2026-2027. Growth drivers include energy demand, infrastructure investment, manufacturing expansion, and a growing domestic supply. The main challenges are raw material price volatility, trade policies, capacity limits, and labor shortages.
Data centers are an increasingly large share of US cable demand, with significant investment in optical fiber. Fisher urged manufacturers to tell real demand from media enthusiasm, and announced capacity from capacity actually built: many projects are delayed by power and equipment constraints or local opposition. He also covered segments that get less attention but matter just as much such as steel wire and wire rod for construction and infrastructure, as well as tariffs.
Speaking as a wire and cable producer rather than a statistician, Fisher described a far more volatile environment since 2020. Build-to-order production, inventory management, and close customer relationships have become decisive, and decisions require more discipline and control.
AI on the factory floor, without illusions
Samuele Marazzita, CEO of MazzMedia, argued that the AI that matters in production is not the language-model kind, but the kind that measures. He pointed to three concrete applications: predictive maintenance, machine-vision quality control, and process parameter optimization. Cases cited included line controls from Rosendahl Nextrom, the program of Schnell, and Prysmian’s digital innovation lab. For machine builders, AI is a function to build into the machine, not just a cost to carry into the factory.
Marazzita also took apart three myths. First, that you can simply “add AI”: without clean data and the right sensors nothing works, and in his view 70% of the effort goes into data collection and integration with PLC and MES systems. Second, that AI replaces people: roles change instead, with the maintenance technician becoming the person who validates the alarm, and the real obstacle is the team’s trust in the results. Third, that a proof of concept is enough: isolated pilots only breed frustration, while success takes one critical machine, a clear economic goal, and about six months before scaling up.
Bricco: the age of great uncertainty
Paolo Bricco linked the Strait of Hormuz crisis to the war in Ukraine: “We are in the heart of a double storm.” About 20 million barrels of oil pass through Hormuz every day, one fifth of world consumption, along with roughly a fifth of global LNG trade. Energy and logistics crises and unstable supply chains hit a Europe and an Italy already marked by the 2008 crisis and, for the first time, far from the global technology frontier. Europe’s industrial policies remain defensive, and 2027 and 2028 will be election years across the continent.
European production capacity is back to 2008 levels, but Italy has lost manufacturing weight and suffers from under-digitalization. Steel illustrates the European paradox: strategically vital, yet squeezed by the Green Deal and, in Italy, by the loss of integrated production and the demise of the Ilva plant in Taranto.
There are stabilizing elements, Bricco said, citing Eni, Leonardo, and Fincantieri, but the picture remains one of great uncertainty, to be faced “neither as complacent apocalyptics nor as blind optimists.”
Expometals.net updates
Daniela Di Maggio, chief editor of Expometals.net, the official online media partner of ACIMAF, presented the latest release to the members: online stands and company profiles are now available in eight languages, including Chinese and Turkish, and the new AI Search brings AI-based search across the platform. She also recalled the special conditions reserved for ACIMAF members.
Next stop: Wire & Cable Padua 2027
As ACIMAF President Ferruccio Bellina noted, the association turns 40 in 2027, and the Wire & Cable Padua 2027 conference will be part of the anniversary year. It will take place on October 18, in a new congress center, following the successful editions in Milan and Verona. Bellina invited Italian companies to propose topics through the call for papers, which is open to industry specialists from around the world. More details on the dedicated event page.
