Bauma - Closing Report Positive

I myself fell victim to the Icelandic volcano ash cloud, as did many others, and missed Bauma 2010 held in Munich, Germany. But despite mother nature’s meddling, officials are calling Bauma a success and “a turnaround in the international construction machinery industry, ushering in the hoped-for change in sentiment.”

More from the report; “The mood in the industry shows that in Europe the bottom of the cycle is now behind us. Confidence has returned. Of course at the start of the fair the exhibitors felt the lack of many customers from Asia and America – but in the second half of bauma, this improved considerably. Messe München´s crisis management in the days impacted by volcanic ash was outstanding.” This is how Ralf Wezel, Secretary-General of CECE, the Committee for European Construction Equipment, summed up this year´s bauma. In doing so, he confirmed the expectations of the sector as outlined by Dr Christof Kemmann, Chairman of the VDMA Construction Equipment and Building Materials Machinery Industry Association, at the Main Press Conference for bauma 2010 on the first day of the fair.

The report continues, “Although the ban on air travel in Europe prevented visitors and in the end around 50 exhibitors from overseas from coming to the fair, the mood at the venue among the approximately 3,150 registered exhibitors from 53 countries was good by the close of the fair. Already by the mid-way point of the fair a number of exhibitors were reporting more sales than they had expected. “The good old times are coming back: the figures for sales taken at the fair far exceed our expectations. We reckon we will be able to match the volume we took at the record bauma in 2007. This is a clear signal that at Zeppelin-Cat, too, business is moving forward again after the difficult year of 2009,” confirmed Michael Heidemann, Managing Director of Zeppelin and CEO of Zeppelin Baumaschinen GmbH, Germany.
Michikazu Okada, Vice-President of Hitachi Sumitomo Heavy Industries Construction Crane Co., Ltd., Japan: ” We had a lot of new business opportunities some of which already resulted in unexpected conclusions of sale.”

This of course is fantastic news. For more information, read the rest of the report by clicking here.
-Randy