Minerals, Metals, Metallurgy, Materials 2008
Lukewarm response, blame it to crisis
Thomex.com
The seismic current of global economic recession has reached India too, although marginally. The sense was most palpable in the recent international conference on Metal Asia 2008, where few businessmen turned up for the show. Many stalls remained empty and unattended and exhibitors were seen waiting for visitors in perpetuity. Organised by Expomedia and titled 'Minerals, Metals, Metallurgy, Materials 2008', the show was held at Greater Noida's India Expo Centre from November 13-16 to mark the 46th Metallurgists Day. There were more than 200 exhibitors from over 30 countries who attended the exhibition, claimed the organiser.The event is being held under the aegis of Ministries of Steel, Mines, Coal, Commerce & Industry & Public Enterprises, Council of Scientific Research, Small Scale Industries, Department of Atomic Energy and other governmental agencies.The conference, which was organised parallel to the exhibition, observed that India’s National Steel Policy targeted an average of 7 per cent growth in steel output, which would take the country's production capacity to more than 100 million tons by 2020. The conference also noted that rapid growth in the steel and aluminium sectors will create diverse opportunities for Indian companies.Talking to thomex.com, Kaushik Banerjee of Hagglunds who had put up his stall at the show gave three plausible reasons for the low attendance - the economic recession, the ongoing IITF tradeshow in Delhi which was attracting major crowd and the distance of the venue from the Capital."Noida and Greater Noida are hubs of OEMs, there were very few people from steel industry, plant-level professionals or maintenance or end-users who came to visit us," rued Banerjee who added, "Delhi is the right place for holding shows on Power sector but not metal, metallurgy or mining. These types of show should be held in Central or Eastern India which have higher concentration of these industries."But the response was encouraging for some, like for a SAIL official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We received some good trade leads and hope to get more on the coming two days. Talking about the recession and its impact on the show, he said, "These tradeshows were planned much earlier, even before the recessions were hardly anticipated. So, both are not linked."There were others like ML Sindhu of VAAS Industries, who blamed the organiser more than the economic recession for the lukewarm response to the show. "There was no proper publicity about the show. When we came here on Nov 12 there were hardly any hoardings at the major crossings. So people hardly knew about the show," Sindhu said.Sindhu felt that despite a good set up and infrastructural facilities, the show could not garner adequate response as it was too far from the city. "The organiser should have organised bus shuttle service to transport people from various parts of the city to the venue," observed Sindhu who was seen gasping about his decision to participate in the show. Liu Tao of Sinosteel Equipment & Engineering, who had come all the way from China received not more than 40 visitors a day and felt that financial meltdown was the major dampener. He said that the prices and productions have been equally hit by the liquidity crisis. Zhichao of Sun-Glare from China shared the same sentiment and opined that the venue should have been closer to the city. "It took us more than an hour to reach the venue, how could one imagine a visitor taking so much pain to reach the show," Liu Zhichao said.But bulldozing all problems, there was ArcelorMittal who seemed quite satisfied with the response. And the reason was not far to conjecture as its stall was the cynosure of everyone's eyes. For the first time in India, ArcelorMittal showcased its car inside parts made from special steel which was light in weight and met all the safety norms."We are already supplying this steel to European car makers which has proved to be highly efficient. We are looking ahead for a good business as India is fast emerging a prominent player in the segment," said Kondapalli Venkateswarlu who was quite satisfied with the response which had reached 120 visitors a day.
Photogallery of Minerals, Metals, Metallurgy Materials 2008
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