Driving force: the Wire/Tube 2020
From March 30 to April 3, 2020, the Düsseldorf Exhibition Center will become the global information and communication hotspot for the wire, cable and tube industries. The industry heavyweights Wire/Tube will also present themselves in 2020 with a total of around 2600 exhibitors on a total net area of 115,000 square meters in 16 exhibition halls.
However, Kurt Eder, president of the Austrian Association of Wire and Cable Machinery Manufacturers and owner of Eder Engineering, also pointed out at the Wire/Tube press conference that the trade war, starting in the USA, was making exports dramatically more difficult. Hardly any more exhibitors came to the Wire/Tube in Iran. The Wire/Tube in Düsseldorf therefore sees itself as an impulse generator, especially in times characterized by uncertainty due to trade policy tensions between the USA, China and Europe and Brexit.
But things are still humming in Düsseldorf and the economic downturn emerging in Germany has not affected the Wire/Tube. Of the 20 association members organized in the VÖDKM, 17 participate in Wire. "Anyone who does not participate here is considered to be no longer active in the market" says, Friedrich-Georg Kehrer, Global Portfolio Director Metals and Flow Technologies, Messe Düsseldorf. Some 1240 exhibitors from 57 countries presented their products and services at the last Tube show, covering an exhibition area of about 52,400 square meters. Almost 30,000 visitors did not miss the leading tube trade show.
Exhibitors are also visitors
In 1988, the Wire started with 4000 square meters of exhibition space. With around 1440 exhibitors from 53 countries, the Wire sets standards today. Around 42,250 visitors - a record number - came to find out about the numerous innovations in 2018. These were presented on an exhibition area of 65,065 square meters.
At the Wire/Tube, exhibitors are sometimes also visitors. A nail manufacturer also finds the supplier of his nail production machine at the Wire. The Wire/Tube is one of the so-called (world) leading trade fairs in Düsseldorf, which will come together in a concentrated way through the trade fair cycle in 2020 and give Messe Düsseldorf a record sales year. But small companies, the startups, also test their marketability here. "Not everything always happens at the big ones," says Friedrich-Georg Kehrer (pictured above).
For the first time, the new multifunctional exhibition hall offers Tube exhibitors new display opportunities. "We hope that the new Hall 1 will become a landmark not only for the trade fair, but for Düsseldorf," says Friedrich-Georg Kehrer.
A clear yes to Messe365
According to Friedrich-Georg Kehrer, the fact that exhibitors and visitors continue to come to the Wire/Tube (and to all trade fairs in Düsseldorf) is a clear no to the so-called "virtual" trade fair (if not to a certain digitality in trade fair management): "Machines and systems still need to be explained; that is not possible on the Internet and in chats. Trade fairs are sensual, even a wire/tube lives from hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting. That's what makes the trade show so important. The industry has to meet physically. There is no substitute on the net, the numbers speak a clear language."
