The Wire 2012 show held at Dusseldorf in Germany from March 26 to 30 turned out to be a great success, reports Huned Contractor

With trains arriving packed at the Messe Nord station in Dusseldorf, Germany, not to forget the serpentine queues of exhibitors and visitors waiting to gain entry every morning, there was proof enough of the Wire 2012 show held at Dusseldorf from March 26 to 30 having notched yet another successful year. According to the organisers, Messe Dusseldorf, the wire show posted an increase of 10.4 per cent in space bookings this year compared to 2010 with 1,290 exhibitors over 57,000 sq metres of stand space. "Many of our customers in the wire and cable industry achieved record sales in 2011 or at least came very close to the pre-crisis years of 2007 and 2008. The markets in Asia, in particular India and China, have been the driving force of the recovery," said Heinz Rockenhauser, president of the International Wire and Cable Exhibitors Association (IWCEA).

Reportedly, the strong presence of exhibitors from India confirmed the fact that the upward spiral of the growth curve is all set to get steeper. "Recent industry reports have indicated that India will play a big role in the growth of the wire and cable industry worldwide primarily because of the demand and the fact that the quality of the products manufactured in India is now more or less on par with those of companies across the US and European markets," said Mr D Suryanarayana Rao, director of Andhra Machine Industries. This was also the reaction of Ravi Bansal, director of Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co, who recently secured an exclusive agency agreement with the UK-based Batoyle Freedom Group for the sale of its lubricants for non-ferrous wire in India.

According to Mr Raj Kumar Tyagi, president of the India chapter of the Wire Association International (WAI), the number of exhibitors from India increased to 128 this year as compared to 105 during Wire 2010 and the causative factor was the driving force of India's wire industry to not only cater to the increasing demand on the domestic front but also tie up with established foreign players who would be willing to share technologies, set up manufacturing platforms in India and become partners in the true sense. "The fact that India is now passing through a stage of infrastructure development and its GDP is poised to be upwards of 7-8 per cent is good news for the wire and cable industry," he said.

The wire show this year was once again a showcase of the latest products and technologies even as it provided a networking opportunity between exhibitors and visitors. "Considering that the wire show is being held concurrently with the one on tube, our expectation is that more than 70,000 visitors will attend the fair grounds this year," said Mr Joachim Schaefer, Managing Director, Messe Dusseldorf on the opening day. For many of the companies in the wire sector, in particular, this was a chance to provide demonstrations of new technologies, which would now find their way into commercial application.

Eder Engineering of Austria, for example, was one of them."We have displayed a complete solution using advanced DotPeening tasks for drawing die identification within the die tool-using wire and cable industry. This is a marking and identification system (hardware), combined with a special software, for storing, reading and administrating all important die tool property and performance data. By using the special EDDS-2 marking unit, a small specific and continuously individual numeric alpha data matrix code can be marked on to the steel casings of each die in a couple of seconds and with the highest precision, while proof of marking quality is achieved. This data matrix code can be easily read out and transferred to a special software," informed Dr Kurt Eder, director of Eder Engineering.

The show was also an opportunity for various global companies to make known their plans for India. For example, Metalube, a leading wire and tube drawing lubricants specialist, has now opened an office in Mumbai as a strategic move to expand its international operations. "We are exporting our products to 80 countries worldwide and have an operating business in Shanghai. India was, therefore, on our priority list. "We have big ambitions for Metalube India which currently offers marketing and technical services along with a product testing laboratory. Our plan is to also start manufacturing activities in India," said Mr Douglas Hunt, the company's commercial director. Elsewhere, major investments have been planned out on a global scale to cash in on the predicted boom in the wire and cable industry. Dow Electrical & Telecommunications, a business unit in the performance plastics division of the Dow Chemical Company, has, for instance, announced a series of strategic investments in assets that serve customers in the wire and cable sector. These investments include modernisation of its manufacturing facilities in the US and Germany. "These modernisations will complement the ongoing improvements that have already advanced the quality and consistency of materials produced by the business, ensuring production of reliable long-life cables that stand up to demanding performance requirements worldwide," informed Mr Robert Tarimo, Marketing Manager-Global HV Solutions, Dow Wire & Cable Europe.

Meanwhile, when asked for their reactions to the wire show, most of the exhibitors said that the interaction would definitely help in taking their business plans forward. "We have a tie-up with Walson, a manufacturer of diamond dies at Surat, and our company Walson Woodburn is now looking forward to the beginning of operations at our new SEZ facility in Gujarat. Also, we have always seen India as a country offering great potential and the ability to become a primary contributor in the development of new products in the wire and cable industry," said Mr John Rumpz, Vice President, Woodburn Diamond Die, Inc. Equally positive was the reaction from Mr Shoaib Ismail, director of the Karachi-based Premier Cables, who opined that the wire and cable industry across the world is going through a strong phase of "cooperative business growth". This year's show also held at its core the theme of sustainable energy and green technology. "The Japanese catastrophe in Fukushima dramatically illustrated that changes are necessary in global energy supply.

Fossil fuels and raw materials important for industrial production are no longer available to the world's population indefinitely and are no longer cheap. The production of renewable energies, their changed distribution and necessity for efficient usage are now in focus. All this will mean greater recycling of valuable raw materials and an intensified search for suitable and available replacement materials. The factors that will propel us forward are constant innovation, the competition of ideas and concepts and their implementation on the one hand and the sparing use of resources on the other. We, the wire and cable industry and its suppliers, can make a contribution in this process in almost all fields," said Rockenhauser.