63 wire report

ISSUE 63 - MAY 2010 > WIRE REPORT

wire 2010, the international wire and cable trade fair, and Tube 2010, the international tube and pipe trade fair, were once again staged at the Dusseldorf Messe from 12th to 16th April 2010. Organisers reported that the shows were proof that business is once again picking up after the economic problems last year.

Joachim Schäfer, managing director in charge of wire 2010 and Tube 2010 at Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, said: “Over the years Düsseldorf has become the international platform for two key sectors of industry. Global contacts are forged and orders placed here for the years ahead.” He goes on to say: “The trade fairs therefore took place at precisely the right point in time. Companies are now investing again so as to gear up for future competition or re-pitch themselves.”

Almost 69,200 trade visitors from over 100 countries attended the shows to gather information on the latest machinery, equipment and products from the wire, cable and tube processing industries, with the figure slightly down from the record attendance of 73,600 in 2008. Visitors primarily represented industry (81%) followed by trade (8%) and skilled crafts (3%).

Just fewer than 2,400 exhibitors (compared to 2,200 exhibitors in 2008) were at the shows, occupying a total of 100,000 square metres of net exhibition space. This broke down to 1,219 companies in the wire halls and 1,181 companies in the Tube halls.

The ranges on display in exhibition halls 9 to 12 and 15 to 17 included wire making and processing machinery and equipment, tools and process engineering auxiliaries, as well as materials and special wires. To add to this, innovations from the fields of cable, measuring, control and regulation technology as well as test engineering were on show. Special areas such as logistics, conveying systems and packaging complemented the ranges.

A very welcome re-organisation was the location of exhibits in Halls 15 to 17: forming presented the latest technologies in Hall 15 whereas Hall 16 hosted the latest processes for spring making. All applications related to wire and cable, wire and cable machinery as well as glass fibre machines could be found in Halls 9 to 12 and 16 to 17.

The majority of fastener manufacturing technology exhibitors were based in Hall 15, with approximately 145 companies exhibiting.

The opening Monday was relatively quiet, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday picking up. Friday saw the volcanic ash cloud hit Germany with nearly all flights grounded. This led to Friday being even quieter than customary for a five day show, with visitors assumingly trying to arrange how they were going to get home.

However, it was not only the visitors that were concerned about getting home. Exhibitor Weighpack International, based only three hours drive from Düsseldorf in Den Haag, Netherlands, also suffered from the chaos caused by Icelandic volcanic ash. “As a matter of fact,” explained managing director Dries Kout, “I ended the show with the two engineers scheduled to break down our stand stuck in the US and one Chinese salesman, three Brazilian agents, an Iranian customer, a Jewish agent and three US customers to look after in the Netherlands – another experience never before encountered in the fastener business.”

As far as the show was concerned Kout was happy with how it had gone. “The attendance was very international as usual, with many visitors from South America coming with a definite investment approach.”

He added: “European automotive fastener manufacturers still felt quiet for new machines, but there was a lot of interest for reconditioned and used equipment.”

Overall the consensus within Hall 15 was that although the visitor numbers appeared to be lower than previous years, the quality of the visitors made it a very good show.

Jerry Bupp, CEO at National Machinery, felt that visitor volumes did seem down, but the geographic spread was wide ranging. “The show was excellent with multiple sales closed during the exhibition to customers from varied geographic locations,” he said. There were also new opportunities: “we were able to make contact with some new clients, with promising potential for subsequent orders, as well as further communication with established customers.”

“The show seems to support the idea that our industry is on an upward swing,” assessed Bupp. “It may be slow and cautious but it is at least in recovery mode.” North America, though, was “barely represented” in contrast to strong representation from South America as well as Europe, with visitors from across Asia, many from China, some from India.

Schwer + Kopka GmbH was extremely pleased with the quality visitors to its stand. “Our records indicate that visitors travelled from 21 different countries which is an improvement from the last event. We do feel there was a slight change in the attendee “mix” with a significant increase in attendance from Asian firms while visitors from North America were reduced,” explained Thomas Kopka, managing director of Schwer + Kopka GmbH.

He added, “We were exceedingly pleased with the results of the exhibition having received well over 25 orders which included several new clients.”

Nakashimada, the Japanese cold header manufacturer, reported having a good show, with visitors to its stand coming from Germany, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, India and China, with Nakashimada saying that the majority of visitors brought drawings or samples and were looking to do “real” business.

The range of international visitors was also noted by Altrimex, a packaging solutions specialist from Hellmond in the Netherlands, who received some serious contacts over the five days. “The interest in our products has shifted to the Middle East and Latin America, as most of our interesting leads came from these area,” commented Laurens van Osch, operational manager at Altrimex.

In fact the portion of international trade fair visitors was up on previous years with 63% of trade fair visitors to the wire show travelling to Düsseldorf from abroad. wire alone was attended by 35,000 trade visitors from 70 countries such as United Kingdom, France, USA, Italy, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland.

The next edition of wire and Tube will take place once again at the Düsseldorf Messe from 26th – 30th March 2012.

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