Column number 77 – 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic is still spreading across Europe and the whole world, putting significant pressure on national budgets and all the manufacture sector. It is useless, but we must take note that industry is in deep suffering and not all companies will come out from the crisis, not all will be still standing when everything will come to the end. Orders are falling, in second quarter industrial production index in Europe decreased by almost -20% in Q2 2020 against the same period of the previous year. In April alone, industrial output fell by -27% on a yearly basis. The second wave of pandemic will finish the job, giving the coupe de grace to many companies which were already not so solid before: the positive aspect is the third quarter, with a resumption of industrial production that, even if the data are still not completely available, might give a pulse to the sector with positive trend. In the fourth quarter, which was aimed to see a general growth of orders and activity, the spread of pandemic upset all the forecast, now substituted by a giant question mark: what will be in the future?
The only solution is holding on, trying not to fall and saving employees, waiting for better days, in which planning will be easier and uncertainty will not be the leading feeling for everyone.
It is difficult for managers and industrial to face a time when they can not control their own destiny, when the future is in someone else’s hands: in industry, with numbers and accurate esteems you can usually foresee everything, in every condition you can always try to do something to reverse the worst situation. Now is not possible: we can only wait and see what happens. It’s not easy to accept for women and men of action.
Another topic in which we can only wait and see what happens is Tube Dusseldorf. After the spring postponement, the exhibition is scheduled from December 7th su 11th: while other exhibition, EuroBlech first, chose to go virtual, Tube is still to be held in presence. Many companies, as you can read in our special pages inside this issue of the magazine, decided to cancel their participation, but many are still ready to take part to an event that is hoped to be the first step to restart of the sector. We will be there, with daily reports on our website and many photographies directly from Messe Dusseldorf, if nothing comes to change the plans. Effectively, if the exhibition will be really held, it would be a great injection of positivity and hope for the whole sector, as well as an impulse for business.
Inside our magazine, you will find many pages dedicated to Tube2020, as much as to other exhibition that have taken place in these months: Bi.Mu in Milan, EuroBlech Digital and Tube&Wire China.
Enjoy your reading.