It was organised by Invema in collaboration with SPRI. This mission, which has been organised to different countries for more than 5 years (visiting companies in Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan and the USA), counted on the participation of 10 people from different organisations linked to the sector: Loire, Fagor Arrasate, Fagor Automation, Goratu, Soraluce, Koniker, IK4-Ideko and IK4-Tekniker.

10 companies were visited during the mission: TATA Automotive (the vehicle manufacturer TATA’s entire factory), the set-ups in India of the machine tool manufacturers RPK and KORTA, Premier, Precitec, ACE Manufacturing, HMT, Bharat Fritz Werner and Widia (the only company that the machine tool manufacturers, Kennametal Group, has in India).

The mission was able to see how well the automotive sector is performing in India, driving on local machine tool manufacturers, with growth currently at around 12%. Some f the other sectors experiencing growth are the railways, energy and public works.

The following week, from 18 to 22 June, representatives from Izar, Zayer, Xubi, Zorrotz, Ibarmia, Fresmak, Goratu, Juaristi, Soraluce, Trimek and AFM, visited the CSMC machine tool institute in Tianjin, the Airbus firm and the AEROMART congress-fair.

Those taking part in the mission were able to see at first hand the possibilities offered by the AFM-China platform through the Institute. What’s more, the companies had some very good meetings and made some very interesting contacts at the AEROMART fair.