Euroblech in Hanover last week was probably the quietest European sheet trade fair of the 21st century so far. As a platform for technology and engineering providers, it may have fulfilled the expectations of exhibitors, but not for steel market trading participants.
Strikingly, Germany’s biggest mills, thyssenkrupp Steel and Salzgitter, stayed away from the event. By comparison, last year’s Blechexpo in Stuttgart saw not only their steelmaking units attend, but also distribution divisions thyssenkrupp Materials Services and Salzgitter Mannesmann. Both groups, when asked by Kallanish, say they will be in attendance again in Stuttgart next year.
It took less than one hand to count the steelmakers who had stands in Hanover: ArcelorMittal, voestalpine, Tata Steel Europe, and Marcegaglia. Again, by comparison, the 2025 Blechexpo saw representation from Arvedi, NLMK, big distributors and processors like Kloeckner, Knauf Interfer, Spaeter, and many more which did not show up in Hanover, at least not with a stand of their own.
“Costs, resources and time made many mills pull out,” one mill source believes. He finds that “the significance and the benefit of such fairs are not what they used to be”. Deals and contracts are no longer signed at the fairs, but have been moved more into daily contact business, he concludes.
Author: Christian Koehl Germany
