TECH-FAB Europe’s annual General Assembly gathered the European technical textiles industry together in Lecco, Italy, this January.

The event commenced on Wednesday 28^th January with a visit to Owens Corning’s plant in Besana. This provided an opportunity to rediscover the production of glass fibre roving, visit the newest impressive furnace, running 24/7 for more than a decade, and learn about this very efficient operation with the flexibility to adapt to market demand.

Guest speakers

At the General Assembly on 29^th January, we had the pleasure of welcoming two guest speakers.

Professor Roberto Frassine, President of EuCIA, presented the European Circular Composites Alliance (ECCA). This new sectorial alliance of EuCIA is a voluntary industry-led initiative dedicated to advancing the circularity of composite materials. TECH-FAB Europe joined EuCIA in 2024 and is an ECCA member.

The second speaker was Amélie Roux, Chief Economist at Saint Gobain, who presented a global economic outlook. Selected KPIs offered better visibility of the complexity of the world economy, including current geopolitical factors. She then explored the European construction market, highlighting different trends dependent on location and market segment. In these challenging times this presentation also helped to identify opportunities for our European technical textiles industry, focusing on innovation and circularity for sustainable growth.

New leadership

As always, the annual General Assembly served as a valuable platform for the association’s Working Groups to share their activities to strengthen our European technical textiles value chain for the future. It was an opportunity to highlight the crucial role of engineered technical textiles in enhancing performance and sustainability in many sectors, including construction, (e.g. ETICS), mobility (lightweighting), energy (wind power), and recreational (boats). These markets are addressed through dedicated Working Groups for glass fibre fabrics, glass fibre mesh, technical polyester fabrics, and – coming soon – carbon fibre fabrics.

During the meeting, Dario Buzzi, VP Sales & Marketing at Gavazzi, was elected as TECH-FAB Europe’s new President. Gavazzi is a long-time member of TECH-FAB Europe, with in-depth understanding of the industry and its challenges. We are certain that Dario will drive the continued development of our association.

Dario takes over from Agusti Porta, Wind Energy Strategic Business Leader EU, Owens Corning, who has served as President for the last six years, and an active member of the association from the start. The assembly was unanimous in acknowledging Agusti’s diplomatic skills and the time and energy he has dedicated to serving our industry.

We also welcome Nicolas Paquet, Market Intelligence Manager at Saint Gobain, as Vice-Chair, and Christian Beckmann, CEO at Saertex, and Lieven Keymeulen, Global TMRG & Regional EMEA-APAC Advanced Reinforcement Director at Milliken EPP, as Deputy Chairs.