Day: 26 June 2023

Last Wednesday and Thursday the main event for steel distributors in Central Europe took place in Kraków, Poland.

160 participants came together in a co-organisation of EUROMETAL and the Polish Association of Steel Stockholders (PUDS).

This event, which took place at The Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, especially geared towards the Visegrad region, also welcomed steel stakeholders from the rest of Europe and Turkey.

After an introduction by PUDS President Iwona Dybał and the EUROMETAL Vice President Robert Kay, the event featured key note speakers such as Anthony de Carvalho from the OECD, Geoff Gottlieb from the International Monetary Fund, Wojciech Zalewski from EY, Alexander Siryk from Metals Consulting International, Stanislav Zinchenko from the GMK Center and Adam Szewczyk from World Steel Association.

During the day we also had the opportunity to listen to steel professionals such as Jan Moravec from Ferona, Frederik Leus from ArcelorMittal Europe and Andreas du Plessis from the Reibus sales platform.

The event concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Adam Smith from Kallanish, which was attended by Roland Fazekas from Carboferr and MAFE (Association of Hungarian Steel and Metal Traders), Virinder Garg from Liberty Steel Group, Zenon Jędrocha from Stalprofil and the president of EUROMETAL, Fernando Espada.

EUROMETAL congratulates the PUDS for this EUROMETAL Central Europe Regional Meeting which exceeded all expectations.

We thank all the speakers, panelists, sponsors, technicians and all the people involved who made this event a success.

Last Wednesday EUROMETAL organized a meeting with the national federations. This meeting on the eve of the EUROMETAL Regional Meeting Central Europe in Krakow was attended by 9 delegates in person and 11 participants online via Zoom from the following federations:

Açomefer (PT), Ardimet (RO), ARGE SMD – WKOÖ (AT), Assofermet (IT), Belmetal (BE), Branchehuset (DK), FFDM (FR), MAFE (HU), PUDS (PL), SSHV (CH), Stål og Metallgrossistenes Forening (NO), Stål- och Metallföreningen (SE), UAHE (SP) and YISAD (TK).

At the opening of the event, Roberto Gonzalez, EUROMETAL Chairman of National Federations Working Group and President of UAHE (SP) thanked all those present online and onsite for their participation. He praised the interest of meetings and close collaborations between national federations. He also suggested the creation of a mailing group among all the federations to discuss important issues such as updating the survey carried out in 2014 on the services provided by each federation.

The meeting continued with a message from Fernando Espada, EUROMETAL President, on the position of EUROMETAL and the discussions and reflections that have been made within the presidency and that will be submitted at the end of the year for approval by the General Assembly.

During the meeting Piotr Sikorski, PUDS Head Manager, delivered a PUDS approach to income diversification and how to introduce paid content web service without losing members.

Helge Runer – Norsk Stål CEO and Norsk Stålforbund Chairman also presented on the difficult future of steel and its distribution, highlighting the need to attract young professionals, the counter-production of a volume-oriented business, the fact that mills sell directly to customers, the need to promote and communicate our steel but also the regulatory constraints like the transparency act and the CBAM taxation issues.