Recently we participated in the Metec trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany. This is part of a "quartet" of events, all aimed at the metals industry at large: The Bright World of Metals.
In the mean time all materials and demos have been transported back, everyone returned safely to Brussels and the last bits of information have been processed. We had to pleasure to talk to existing clients and partners as well as meeting up with potential new ones alike on our own booth as well as on those of others and even in the city center.
Some numbers: the show lasted for 5 full days and during the event we had advanced conversations with people from 49 different companies active in the production of steel and other metals, coming from more than 18 different countries . Conversations started already on Sunday, before the official beginning and for us Tuesday and Wednesday were those with the highest number of interactions.
Despite the present-day slowdown in manufacturing in Europe, the atmosphere was very vibrant and with a stern look into the future. Next to very technical conversations, most stories revolved around one of the following topics:
- As expected: the decarbonisation of steel production, and the associated challenges and opportunities. This includes the need for lifetime extension of critical assets till the moment the new DRI, EAF… installations become fully operational
- Also the rapid and continued growth of the industry in strongly developing areas such as India and Africa got a lot of attention. With increasing budgets going to public infrastructure, the base materials essential in the building process need to be supplied as well.
- Re-shoring production to Mexico and, for the first time since a while: greenfield projects on US soil.
- The number of times people asked us “and now what is it exactly that you do” has dropped significantly since the former edition of Metec back in 2019. Industry is definitely ready to look at their critical assets in a Smart way.
For us now the second part of the show has begun: the follow-up. Meetings have been scheduled and new materials are produced. Looking forward to how it's all unfolding (including the trips to visit the sites of the people we got to know) in the near future…