wire & Tube 2010 in Düsseldorf. A success story continued

wire 2010 and Tube 2010 in Düsseldorf.
A success story continued!

Last year’s economic trough has definitely been left behind and business is picking up again! This is reflected by the euphoria prevailing among the just under 2,400 exhibitors in the halls of the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre after five days of trade fair business.

Almost 69,200 trade visitors from over 100 countries attended the two global No. 1 trade fairs wire, International Wire and Cable Trade Fair, and Tube, International Tube and Pipe Trade Fair, held from 12 to 16 April 2010, to gather information on the latest machinery, equipment and products from the wire, cable and tube processing industries; and all the exhibitors polled in the exhibition halls agreed that the professionalism of the visitors registered at the stands had been again higher than before. Constructive talks, avid interest in purchasing and actual deals as well as expectations regarding interesting follow-up business all characterised the atmosphere at wire 2010 and Tube 2010.

Summing up Joachim Schäfer, the 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 are therefore taking place at precisely the right point in time. Companies are now investing again so as to gear up for future competition or repitch themselves.”



Across the board the over 2,400 exhibitors (compared to 2,200 exhibitors in 2008!) of wire and Tube said they were very satisfied with this year’s trade fair. The companies of the two trade fairs occupied a total of 100,000 square metres of net exhibition space.

“At destination Düsseldorf the international key players of the wire, cable and tube industries meet with competent decision-makers from all over the world,” says Schäfer and adds: “A global industry forum where global players, medium-sized companies and even small firms show what they have in store.”


wire 2010:
“The trade fair went outstandingly well. We already had visitors virtually thronging on the first day of the event,” delights Egon Reich, Board Member in charge of Sales and Marketing at WAFIOS AG Reutlingen, after five trade fair days.

And wire expert Reich adds: “Visitors at the stand were excellently prepared and very international. We also attribute this to the fact that we mailed targeted information in the run-up to wire 2010. Furthermore, we are expecting interesting post-fair business.”

At wire 1,219 enterprises from 52 countries presented their innovations on approximately 52,000 square metres of exhibition space. This corresponds to a 7.3% rise in exhibitor numbers.

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 and special wires. Apart from 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 new feature 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.

“wire is going well and customer interest is high. Almost everyone feels that business is continually picking up,” was the view of Benedikt Niemeyer, CEO of Schmolz + Bickenbach, a global player in the steel sector.

Just as highly satisfied with the results of wire were the producers of tools for process engineering as well as companies manufacturing wire-making and processing machinery. Likewise, the producers of raw materials and of special wires and cables rated the trade fair as a success. Here exhibitors appreciated visitors’ professional competence and the high-quality expert talks held at the stands. Good follow-up business is expected by almost all companies polled.

Ten wire drawing operations, machinery and tool shops as well as upstream suppliers for surface treatment technology from southern Westphalia attended wire for the first time. As a joint stand called “netzwerkdraht” they presented innovations. “Our co-exhibitors managed to reactivate many existing contacts and hold promising new talks,” rejoices Stefan Szkudlapski, the initiator and manager of the “netzwerkdraht”, the wire network established in Iserlohn in 2009. “In a nutshell: a top event.”


Tube 2010:
Berg-LAY, a 100“ (inch) tube with an inside copper-nickel layer, was the world premiere presented at Tube by Messrs. Bergrohr from Siegen! Corrosion and pressure-resistant this tube is used wherever highly corrosive media are handled. “The interest taken in our product is high,” says a happy Roger F. Evers, General Sales Manager at Bergrohr GmbH.

The tube expert goes on to say: “On top of this, we expect avid follow-up business especially with the oil and gas industry.”

Tube was held in Halls 1 to 7 and Hall 7a. 1,181 exhibitors from 52 countries presented their innovations on total exhibition space of 45,000 square metres. This means that Tube posted a 13.1 % increase in the number of exhibiting companies over the previous event in 2008.

Tube presented the complete portfolio of products from tube manufacturing and processing to finishing. The ranges included raw materials, tubes and accessories and machinery for manufacturing tubes, process engineering tools and auxiliaries, not forgetting measurement, control and regulation technologies. Testing technology and special fields such as warehouse automation, control and regulation systems complemented the extensive ranges.

“We have been “outstandingly well looked after” at Tube 2010 – a resounding success!” Horst Löcke, General Manager at MCB Deutschland GmbH, goes into raptures over the fair and adds: “We primarily sought to consolidate our contacts in the industry and actually ended up taking many attractive orders from the aluminium sector right at Tube itself.” Löcke stresses: “MCB will definitely be around again at Tube 2012.”

The tube trading sector also occupied a large area at the fair. After its successful premiere in 2008 Pipelines and OCTG Technology (oil country tubular goods) was featured for the second time now.

For the first time now Tube was extended to include the areas of sections/profiles and section/profile technology. Both machinery and equipment for section making and the finished products were presented in various materials and shapes.

An expert in the stainless steel segment, Düsseldorf-based company Stappert is an exhibitor of the “first hour”. This company was already represented at Tube as early as 1990. “In the stainless steel segment Tube is the most important trade fair for us,” says Silke Löser, Head of Marketing at Stappert Spezial-Stahl Handel GmbH, and explains: “Each time we come here we bring a bigger export team because long products and tube accessories are exported from here all over the world.”


Trade Fair Visitors:
Visitors gave very good to good ratings for the outcome of both top events. Five trade fair days saw a total of 69,200 trade visitors come to the exhibition halls in Düsseldorf.

Here the portion of international trade fair visitors has been traditionally high: for wire 63 % of trade fair visitors travelled to Düsseldorf from abroad. wire was attended by 35,000 trade visitors from 70 countries.

The majority of wire visitors came from its traditional countries of origin: United Kingdom, France, USA, Italy, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland. Visitors primarily represented the industry (81 %) followed by trade (8 %) and skilled crafts (3 %).

Trade visitors took an interest in machinery and equipment for wire production and processing (44%), materials, special wires and cable (41%), test technology (22%), measurement, control and regulation technologies (19%) as well as tools for process engineering (20%). Visitor qualification has increased even further. A slight increase in the number of executives can be seen. Visitors to wire once again confirmed the fair’s No. 1 status giving it good to very good marks.

For Tube the international proportion of visitors stood at 55%. Tube was visited by 35,000 guests from 70 countries. Tube visitors primarily came from the Netherlands, Italy, India, Spain, the USA, Belgium, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom. 63% of trade visitors came from the industry, 22% from the trade and 4% from the skilled crafts.

Visitors to the trade fair were interested in tubes and accessories (59%), tube finishing machines (33%) and tube manufacturing machines (28%). Raw materials were considered important by 26 % of the visitors.

11 % of the Tube visitors took an interest in the segment Pipelines and OCTG Technologies presented for the second time now. At the debut two years ago this percentage still stood at 10%.

Altogether the trade visitors issued top scores for the ranges of the exhibiting companies and rated their visit to the trade fair as a success across the board.

wire 2012/Tube 2012:
Both No. 1 trade fairs will again be held jointly in Düsseldorf in 2012. The exact dates will be finalised in the next few weeks.