VDW organising first US symposia

The VDW is hold­ing its first two tech­nol­o­gy sym­posia in the USA at the begin­ning of Decem­ber 2018: in Detroit, Michi­gan, on Decem­ber 4 and in Char­lotte, North Car­oli­na on Decem­ber 6. Both regions are home to large num­bers of machine tool users. This makes them of great inter­est to VDW mem­bers. The theme is “Inno­va­tions in Pro­duc­tion Tech­nol­o­gy — Machine Tools from Ger­many”, and 22 renowned VDW mem­ber com­pa­nies will be pre­sent­ing their prod­ucts and ser­vices to a select­ed audi­ence of trade visitors.

The cur­rent eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion and the gen­er­al con­di­tions for the planned tech­nol­o­gy sym­posia are both high­ly favourable. The USA remains the sec­ond most impor­tant mar­ket for the Ger­man machine tool indus­try. The Pur­chas­ing Man­agers’ Index (PMI) is peak­ing, with con­sumer con­fi­dence at record highs. With 2.9 per cent real growth in the US gross domes­tic prod­uct, the cur­rent year could well see the best result since 2015. The five strongest cus­tomer indus­tries for machine tools are look­ing to invest sig­nif­i­cant­ly more than in the pre­vi­ous year. These are elec­tri­cal engineering/electronics, the auto­mo­tive indus­try, pre­ci­sion engineering/measuring and med­ical tech­nol­o­gy, mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing and the air­craft industry.

Machine tool con­sump­tion, the key para­me­ter for growth, is expect­ed to expand strong­ly in 2018, by up to 13 per cent (dol­lar basis). Ger­man man­u­fac­tur­er sales to the US rose by 18 per cent in 2017, after already post­ing 11 per cent growth in the pre­vi­ous year. Exports in the first half of 2018 were up 8 per cent. Orders received rose a full 20 per cent in the same period.

22 mem­bers have reg­is­tered for the sym­posia in Detroit and Char­lotte: Alzmet­all, Chi­ron-Werke, Emag Gruppe, Emco Magde­burg, FFG Europe & Amer­i­c­as, Glea­son-Pfauter, Hein­rich Georg, Heller, Hermle, Index Werke, Kapp Niles, Niles-Sim­mons-Hegen­schei­dt, Open Mind, Peisel­er, Pro­fi­la­tor, Profiroll Tech­nolo­gies, Sam­ag, Schütte, SW Schwäbis­che Werkzeug­maschi­nen, Siemens, Weiss­er, Zim­mer & Kreim.

They will give 20-minute pre­sen­ta­tions on their prod­ucts and ser­vices to a select­ed group of trade vis­i­tors at both loca­tions. The sym­posia are aimed at the cus­tomer indus­tries in the respec­tive regions. These include the auto­mo­tive and sup­pli­er, mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, avi­a­tion, med­ical tech­nol­o­gy and mould & die industries.

B2B meet­ings are sched­uled in par­al­lel to the pre­sen­ta­tions, with the aim of bring­ing Ger­man sup­pli­ers and US cus­tomers even clos­er togeth­er. The VDW is also invit­ing guests to an evening recep­tion on the evening of the event. This will pro­vide a plat­form for fur­ther dis­cus­sions between Ger­man sup­pli­ers and their guests from the USA.

The sym­posia take place in coop­er­a­tion with the Ger­man-Amer­i­can Cham­bers of Com­merce in Chica­go and Atlanta. Inter­est­ed users can reg­is­ter free of charge for par­tic­i­pa­tion on the web­sites of the Cham­bers of Com­merce: Sym­po­sium Detroit (04 Decem­ber 2018), Sym­po­sium Atlanta (06 Decem­ber 2018). You can find out more about the back­ground to the tech­nol­o­gy sym­posia on the VDW website.

Author: Klaus-Peter Kuhnmünch