Tube 2018, a success that changes its axes

The Tube2018 has gone and the impressing organising machine in Düsseldorf is already working for next edition that will be held from 30 March to 3 April 2020: another great success in numbers, both of visitors and exhibitors, goes to archive with the sensation that Tube2018 must have something, undefined, that is not complete.

A sense of unfinished, of unaccomplished, that comes from the words of some exhibitors and from the numbers of the organisers. That is: is common opinion from the majority of exhibitors that the number of visitors from abroad, in detail from both Americas, India and far East, was strictly reduced in comparison with previous editions. If so many visitors miss the roll call, there is something in the positive summaries that is not easy to understand, beyond the number of contacts in the stand, the number of visitors in the aisles and the positive conclusion of sell speeches during the show. 

What matters, is that many exhibitors would have been happy to meet visitors from Americas, India and Far East and mainly attend the Tube just because they know that such visitors usually storm in the exhibition, and they are properly disappointed if they do not meet them in their booths.

The absence of visitors from outside Europe is objective: in 2012 visitors in Wire and Tube were 73,500, 2,000 more than in 2018, and among visitors of Tube2012 ones coming from USA were 3rd after French and Italians, Brazilians were 5th and Indians were 7th: in 2018 only 22% of the total visitors of Tube came from outside Europe.

Two reflections descend substantially from these numbers: the first is that even if overseas editions of Tube&Wire are constantly growing, the absolute value of number of visitors is essentially constant; the second is that the growth of overseas edition of Tube&Wire is heavily influencing the composition of nationalities of visitors, generating an increase of domestic ones, where domestic is intended as European, that is able to compensate almost completely the decrease of the ones coming from abroad.

It is clear, at all, that Tube is still the main event in the world of Tubes and the general satisfaction of all exhibitors is the best index of effectiveness. No one, in fact, tells us of a low profile edition: all of them are satisfied with the quality of meetings and the interest of visitors, if not of the number of them. Some, underline also the different behaviour of the visitors: after a quiet Monday, a little steam Tuesday, then a good Wednesday, hence a slow Thursday introducing a down Friday. After all, a strange trend for an exhibition that has been always quite crowded, except for Monday and Friday. 

Though the apparent lacks in the rows, exhibitors are quite satisfied: one of them tells even that he was going to ask Messe Düsseldorf to reduce the square of the stand but in the end decided not to proceed and he was so happy of having honoured his obligation because at the end the exhibition went so good and positive that a smaller stand would have meant a smaller chance to receive customers and establish positive commercial contacts.

Hence, the exhibition in Düsseldorf confirms its leading role among shows for the Tube sector, but the great work of organisers is all in the growth of the other shows, from Shanghai to Chicago until Sao Paulo, without sensible reflections on the main event in Germany, keeping untouched the feeling with exhibitors and numbers. The decrease of visitors from certain countries is an additional effect, maybe not at all unpredictable and unpredicted, of this action inspired, if possible, by the opportunity to have the exhibition delivered directly at home. 

The constellation of shows by Messe Düsseldorf is shining and brilliant: one by one, many shows are fallen under the German organisation: Russia, China, Singapore, India, Sao Paolo, Teheran and Chicago. The last one, in particular, has been a stroke of genius, that joins the two more important exhibitions in the European and American continents, establishing a direct link between European machine tools producers and American market.