Any company producing, processing or trading wires, cables and tubes on the world market must not miss the world’s leading trade fairs - wire, International Wire and Cable Trade Fair, and Tube, International Tube Trade Fair - which are held in Düsseldorf every two years.

This is where the sector’s companies present their innovations for the first time. From here, technological trends and innovations spread out into the rest of the world.

Recently the two trade fairs closed their doors in Düsseldorf after achieving a new exhibitor record. During the five trade fair days, about 2,500 companies from all corners of the globe provided information on the latest machines, plants and products from the wire, cable and tube processing industries.

The exhibitors agreed that there was excellent interest in purchasing. Many deals were made and new, interesting business contacts were acquired. There was high praise for the visitor quality, and the location Düsseldorf as the No. 1 international platform for the presentation of industry news was confirmed again.

 “For us as trade fair organisers, the somewhat euphoric mood in the exhibition halls, the orders made here and the expectation of good post-fair business are important indicators that we are right with the trade fair date and the product range,” Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, reports happily.

 “Companies invest heavily in Düsseldorf in order to remain present amongst the international competition,” adds Friedrich-Georg Kehrer, Director of wire 2012 and Tube 2012. “Here, the companies meet qualified business partners from all over the world, and many new contacts are made as well,” he says excitedly.

The approximately 2,500 exhibitors of wire and Tube are very satisfied with the course of the events. A display area of more than 106,000 square metres was booked. This is a new record compared to the also very well attended previous events in the years 2010 and 2008.

All in all, 73,500 trade visitors from 111 countries visited the exhibition centre on the River Rhine over the five days. This is an increase of 6.3% compared to 2010. In that year, 69,200 trade fair visitors came from around 100 countries.

wire 2012:

 “wire and tube in Düsseldorf were excellent events again, and they were very successful fairs for us,” reports Dr. Christoph Müller-Mederer, Sales and Marketing Manager of WAFIOS AG Reutlingen, after five trade fair days. “The follow-up business is now going to be an exciting task!”

The technical manager of the company from Reutlingen is also looking back at a successful wire 2012. “Numerous innovations and new machines were presented to an enthusiastic, professional and now also very international audience,” adds Dr. Uwe-Peter Weigmann, Technology Manager of WAFIOS AG.

1,314 wire companies from 50 countries presented their innovations on a display area of more than 57,000 square metres. This is an increase of approximately 100 exhibiting companies as compared to wire 2010. The increase of display area is also impressive. The area covered by wire exhibitors increased by 10.7%. Thus, wire 2012 confirms again its leading position within the industry. The trend towards more extensive trade fair presence in the shape of larger, more attractive trade fair stands is also continuing.

Exhibition Halls 9 to 12 and 15 to 17 housed machinery and plants for wire production and finishing, tools and auxiliary materials for process technology as well as materials and specialty wire.Current trends from the areas of cable, measurement and control technology and test engineering supplemented the offer range together with the areas of logistics, conveyor systems and packaging.

The area of fastener technology presented its current technologies in Hall 15, while parts of Hall 16 were dedicated to the latest processes in the area of spring making. Applications connected to wires and cables, wire and cable machinery and fibreglass machines were located in Halls 9 through 12 and 16, 17.

The producers of process engineering tools reported satisfaction with the results of wire. This sentiment was echoed by manufacturers of wire production and finishing machines. The success of the trade fair was also confirmed by materials producers and companies offering specialty wire and cable.

Tube 2012:

“We are very happy with the results of Tube 2012,” says a content Norbert Keusen, President and CEO of V & M Deutschland GmbH. “We were able to intensify our contacts with the professional audience and presented our broad product range for the industry in detail. In particular, we had exciting talks about our new tube solution PREOn marine for low noise and space-saving construction of offshore windmills.”

The company from Düsseldorf also set an example for its own corporate policy and exhibited again at Tube for the first time after 14 years.

The Tube companies presented themselves and their products in Halls 1 to 7, 7a and 7 0.2. With 1,184 exhibitors from 48 countries, the Tube exhibitors occupied an overall display area of approximately 49,000 square metres. In comparison with its 2010 event, Tube achieved even more area coverage. In 2012 it can report a display area increase of 9.4%.

“For Salzgitter AG, represented by its Tubes and Trade Division, Tube 2012 is an important communication platform to meet customers and partners,” Bernhard Kleinermann, Manager of Corporate Communication and Investor Relations of Salzgitter AG praises the quality of the trade fair offers. “Since 2002, we have been represented at Tube as a corporate group under the brand “Salzgitter Mannesmann” and show the entire product range, from precision tubes and medium-sized conducting tubes to large-diameter tubes. “Due to the many visitors and the intensive discussions with customers and potential customers, we come to a positive conclusion overall,” Kleinermann expresses his satisfaction on the last trade fair day.

On display at Tube 2012 was the entire product and service range, from tube manufacturing via tube processing to tube machining. The offer range included raw materials, tubes and accessories, machinery for the production of tubes, process technology tools and auxiliary materials.

Profiles and profile technology, measurement and control technology, test engineering and specialty topics such as warehouse automation monitoring and control systems complemented the range of products and services offered at the trade fair.

The main focus of Tube was again the area of tube trade. Third-time participants were the areas of pipelines and OCTG technology (oil country tubular goods). This is an expanding area against the backdrop of major international pipeline projects such as Nabucco, North Stream and South Stream.

Stainless steel and solar energy – an environmentally friendly team on German roofs: Stappert Company sells the materials for rust-proof roof subconstruction and solar systems at Tube 2012. Rectangular and round tubes are the attractive design features of the company’s trade fair stand. Since 1990, Stappert has been presenting itself as an expert in the areas of stainless steel/rust-proof materials at Tube in Düsseldorf.

The company philosophy and the approach to the topics of renewable energies and sustainability are reflected in this year’s trade fair presentation. “At Tube 2012, we made lots of international contacts. Our export team was talking to customers almost around the clock,” Silke Löser, Marketing Manager with Stappert Spezial-Stahl Handel GmbH, conveys her pleasure with a successful trade fair outcome.

The Trade Fair Visitors:

The trade visitors of wire and Tube again assessed the two top events overall as excellent. During the five trade fair days, a total of 73,500 trade visitors from 111 countries came to Düsseldorf.

In comparison with the previous events, the evaluation of the products and services on offer has again improved. German and international trade fair visitors to the two trade fairs gave excellent marks for the offer range of the fairs.

In addition, there were more first-time visitors to wire as well as Tube.

wire 2012:

As is tradition, the rate of international trade fair visitors was high. Approximately 60% of wire visitors came from abroad.

Most of them came to Düsseldorf from the traditional visitor countries, i.e. Italy, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, USA, The Netherlands, Brazil, India, Spain, Turkey, Austria and Switzerland. A strong representation of visitors came from the sectors industry (80%), retail (8%), services (4%) and crafts and trades (2%).

The visitors were primarily interested in wire finishing machinery, steel bars and strips (38%), wire steel bar and strip production machinery (36%), auxiliary materials (machines, devices, tools, operating supplies (29%), finished products (21%), metal forming (15%) and spring making technology (14%).

Tube 2012:

The ratio of international trade fair visitors at Tube was about 50%. Trade visitors arrived primarily from France, Italy, USA, United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, India, The Netherlands, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland and Belgium. 62% of the visitors came from the industrial sector, 21% from retail and 5% from crafts and trades.

Tube visitors were mainly interested in tubes (57%), tube processing machines (26%), tube materials (23%) and tube production machines (22%). Visitors named accessories (18%), profiles (16%) and profile production machines (10%) as their foremost reasons for visiting Tube 2012.

wire 2014 / Tube 2014:

In spring 2014, the leading trade fairs wire and Tube will be held in Düsseldorf for the 14^th time. We will inform industry as soon as the new date is confirmed!