EMO LIVE – Interesting but quiet opening day

It’s a usual day of September her in Hannover: cold, windy and, obviously, rainy, sunny, rainy again. Emo has started, charged of expectations and fears: expectations coming from its motto: “Connecting systems for intelligent production”, that is a new aim to Industry 4.0, a run to the future that could mean a new era for the exhibition, seen and lived in a slow decrease of interest more than numbers.

The fear, obviously, is that the onslaught is not enough to confirm the importance and need for market of general exhibition such as EMO. See in the future, even we must note that in tube sector many companies have decided not to attend.German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially opened EMO Hannover 2017 this morning, stating that “an open society and prosperous economy rest on a foundation of communication and trust. Trade fairs like EMO embody this in a concrete and tangible way. Fortunately, this tradition continues to flourish, even in an age of digital catalogs, video conferences and just-in-time production.”Over 2,200 exhibitors from 44 different nations (compared with 2,131 in 2013) are showcasing their machines, solutions and services for industrial production at the event: Luigi Galdabini, CECIMO President, said that “in Emo we are showing the best potential of our industry, creating the biggest technological laboratory the world has ever seen”. EMO Hannover 2017 is taking place in a promising economic environment. The mood is good and key economic indicators are pointing upwards,. Meanwhile, the IMF just recently confirmed its growth prognosis of 3.5 percent for global GDP.According to forecasts by British-based Oxford Economics industrial production and investment on the part of the machine tool industry’s main client industries is expected to grow this year by 3.4 to 5.6 percent. Asia is expected to take the lead in in-vestment growth at a rate of 6.5 percent, followed by Europe and the Americas. Machine tool consumption is expected to grow at a rate of 3.2 percent. Europe is in first place here, with growth of 4.0 percent. The southern European nations of Italy and Spain, but also France – all three large machine tool markets within Europe – continue to be stable drivers of European growth.The promises are encouraging, but the first day is not enough to say if they will be real: as usual, the start is slow, except in the halls dedicated to tools, where rows were already crowded.More news in next days. Stay tuned.