The venue for this year’s Metav (International Fair for Manufacturing Technology and Automation) was Düsseldorf, and the event lasted five days, from February 23rd to 27th, with participation from 685 companies from 28 countries who presented their latest developments in a net exhibition space of 32,115 square metres. Germany filled the most space, followed by Spain, Japan, Italy and the USA.

This year’s Metav exceeded all prior expectations with a figure of 45,000 visitors from 26 different countries. At the close of the fair, 80% of the visitors interviewed said they intended to invest in manufacturing technologies in the next twelve months.

The participation of the manufacturing companies (Nicolás Correa, the Danobat Group, Etxe-tar, GMTK, Goratu, Meco, Pinacho, MTE, Soraluce and Zuazo) was coordinated by the Spanish Association of Machine Tool Manufacturers with the backing of ICEX, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, within the framework of the Sectoral Plan the two organisations are jointly developing.

Germany remains the top destination for Spanish export, representing 25% of our total sales abroad in 2009. The German Machine Tool Association (VDW) forecasts a significant revival of demand in 2010. VDW’s President Martin Kapp explains that since September 2009, orders in Germany have been increasing month by month, although the maturing period until the orders become actual turnover means that production is expected to drop by a further 10% in 2010 and will begin to grow in 2011, the main driving forces being China, India, the USA, Russia and Brazil.