Demand for capital goods that continued to be very encouraging was the outstanding feature of METAV 2012. Industrial customers from Germany and Europe met in Düsseldorf from 28 February to 3 March 2012 for the international fair for manufacturing technology and automation. “The message METAV sent was very important,” said Dr Wilfried Schäfer, executive director of VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association), which organised VDW. “As the first major metal processing trade fair in the current year, it demonstrated impressively in an uncertain political environment that industry is optimistic and that the sectors supplied continue to be keen to invest.” The roughly 700 METAV exhibitors from 26 different countries were unanimous in their confirmation of this. The orders placed with the German machine tool industry, which increased again in January this year, reflected this as well.
More than 40,000 trade visitors from over 30 different countries came to Düsseldorf for METAV 2012 over the five days of the fair. “This is a good performance in view of full order books and very high capacity utilisation in the sectors supplied,” concluded Schäfer.
The exhibitors emphasised the high quality of the visitors in particular. Rolf Rickmeyer, president MAG Europe in Göttingen, spoke for many of the exhibitors when he confirmed: “Customers arrived with well-prepared projects and drawings and wanted quotations for them.”
Phil Holloway, sales and applications engineer, Photron Europe, based in the UK and exhibiting in Hall 13, was pleased with the show. “We have received two good enquiries which we expect will result in orders. A highly specialised product – possibly the only example at METAV- makes this figure quite impressive. Visitors were mainly from Germany with a number from the Netherlands and Belgium.”
The next time that METAV is being held – in Düsseldorf – is from 11. to 15. March 2014. Visit www.metav.com for more details.
