Interview with UPIVEB President Sergio Pirovano

U.P.I.V.E.B. – Unione Produttori Italiani Viteria e Bulloneria, the Italian Association of fastener manufacturers - was established in Milan on November 28, 1961 as a non-profit organization gathering the main Italian manufacturing companies specialized in the production of fasteners. Currently, the member companies are approximately 40 and represent about 70% of the overall Italian business in this area, their production covers the whole range of CN code 7318 products.  

In a globalized market as the current one, I think that competition must be fair and constructive in order to reach our common goals, which consist in development, environmental protection, and social well-being. Today, the most important industrial areas in which fasteners are used and applied are the automotive and the building/construction industries- “Made in Italy” fasteners are widely used and applied all over the world, especially in Europe, Asia, United States, and South America.          

In the last few years, the Italian fastener manufacturers have been constantly obliged to meet the requests and the needs of their customers. These customers have invited their Italian suppliers to follow them in their production investments around the world. Therefore, the Italian fastener industry tends to conform to the current market requirements as much as possible. The Italian fastener manufacturers can rely on a long-standing culture of automobiles and engines, and our member companies, too, tend to develop their R&D departments, since they aim at further improving and upgrading the products they supply to the these industrial sectors.    

All Italian fastener manufacturers have a deep knowledge of the remaining 65% of the market that does not include the automotive industry, and try to meet its requirements by upgrading and conforming their technology to the development of those markets. In Italy, we have always produced and distributed high-quality products. As a consequence, our peculiar characteristic is that customers are increasingly asking us that the products we supply are in a position to meet any specific standard. As President of UPIVEB, I make myself available to all our members and to the whole fastener production chain to devise and develop system and development strategies aimed at protecting employment, lifestyles, and all our common goals, for the purpose of promoting the growth and the strengthening of the industrial fabric we have constructed with a great deal of sacrifice in our country.   . 

We have succeeded in getting out of the 2009 crisis, which caused a lot of disasters and failures in our industrial world. Naturally, after a storm the weather is clearing up again, and presses and machines have begun to produce again. I think it is incorrect to talk about a 2014 on the rise and a scarcely performing 2015. In my opinion, the new challenge for fastener manufacturers all over the world is today affected by several factors, last but not least the migration issue, which is likely to lead to developments that are quite different from those we expected. Therefore, we must be prepared to cope with sudden economic and social ups and downs in the markets in which we are present.

Fasteners are a primary commodity used in a lot of assemblies, exactly like bread, rice and other products that nourish every day our populations. Global market, competition, and competitiveness have brought substantial changes in the structure of fastener production and distribution companies, and have led to a continuous improvement of their performance, their products, and their services. When competition is fair, it drives human beings to develop their innate competitiveness. The Italian market, too, has been influenced by this surge of change.       

The fastener industry must grow in terms of culture, it must succeed in creating a constructive dialogue aimed at promoting a uniform development in all continents. Senseless development policies have brought only a lot of negativity in the world. Think about the pollution the human kind has produced in our planet. Therefore, I think that we should consider a harmonization of the global objectives of the fastener industry paying the utmost attention to avoid creating further social and economic “disasters” in the different regions of the world in which we act.

As everybody knows, we organized this year in the month of September the event “Fasteners Meetaly –Challenge the Future”, the first world convention focused on fasteners, the results of which have gone beyond all expectations, and where, at the end of the meeting, all participants could receive important information concerning their activities and markets. We are now laying down a new information and communication project involving the industrial, financial, and political world, and we hope we will be able to organize it within 2016.