Again this year an event for assessment of and strategic planning for the Italian natural stone and stone technologies sector, the Confindustria Marmomacchine General Assembly, held on June 27 in Milan, was attended by more than 170 delegates consisting of business people from all over Italy and representatives of the main governmental and business organizations.
The highlights of the convention were President Gianluca Pellegrino’s presentation of the primary work the association carried out in support of Italian stone and techno-stone companies and the technical-economic report made by Flavio Marabelli, Honorary President in charge of official relations, who provided an in-depth examination of the sector nationally and globally.
Official sector statistics for 2024 showed that, in a complex international situation, the Italian stone industry’s foreign sales – which account for more than 70% of its production – essentially held steady. Despite a slight dip (-1.2%) from 2023, total exports of natural stone and extraction and processing technologies reached 3,147 million euros, remaining on the record levels of the previous two years. The value of production of the more than 3,200 companies in the Italian stone industry . employing more than 34,000 people – was last year close to 4.5 billion euros, with an annual active trade balance of more than 2.7 billion, figures that confirm the stone industry as one of the most propulsive and excellent sectors in manufacturing Made in Italy.
During the assembly the members attending were called upon to elect a new Board of Directors for the 2025-2027 term, who will have to honor of voicing the needs and expectations of the more than 350 companies belonging to Confindustria Marmomacchine.
The 20 board members elected were, in detail:
Francesco Antolini (Antolini Luigi & C.) – Davide Bauce (Bauce Bruno & C.) – Luigi Boselli (Diamond Service) – Dorian Campagnola (Cms) – Nicoletta Caruso (MGI Marmi e Graniti d’Italia) – Mario Caucci (Dps Corp) – Marco Cavalleri (Omag) – Michele Compri (Abrasivi Adria) – Alessandro Ferrari (Tenax) – Daniele Ferrari (Dellas) – Paolo Giacomini (Giacomini Officine Meccaniche) – Arianna Marchetti (Marchetti Tech) – Alessandro Messetti (Gems Srl) – Giovambattista Moncini (Fratelli Moncini) – Fabio Norcini (Gaspari Menotti Technologies) – Giambattista Pedrini (Pedrini) – Elena Pellegrini (Pellegrini Meccanica Spa) – Carmine Scalas (U.Sa.Di.2) – Mirko Stangherlin (Simec) – Flavio Stenico (Steinex). Completing the Board of Directors for 2025-2027 were the association’s current president, Gianluca Pellegrino, Honorary President Flavio Marabelli and past presidents Marco De Angelis, Federico Fraccaroli and Stefano Ghirardi.
Also renewed for the four-year 2024-2029 term were the boards of arbitrators and of auditors.
For the Italian stone/techno-stone industry the association’s general assembly was also an important occasion for networking, making it possible to meet with official representatives and sector businesspeople and stakeholders. From this standpoint there was an interesting panel discussion held on the sidelines of the meeting dealing with “Systemizing enterprise in a time of multi-crises”, at which spoke the ICE-Agency Central Director for Export Sectors, Maurizio Forte, the Head of Office II of General Management for Promoting Italy Inc. at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), Cons. Amb. Alessandra Pastorelli, and the General Manager of VERONAFIERE, Adolfo Rebughini.