The Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, has this morning presided over the official opening ceremony for the Biennial Machine Tool Fair. Considered to be the leading industrial fair held in Spain and one of the most important in Europe, the event will bring together in Bilbao 1,171 exhibitors from 25 different countries.

At the opening ceremony the Minister was accompanied by the Basque Government’s Minister of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism, Bernabé Unda, the Head of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, José Luis Bilbao, the Chairman of AFM, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, José Ignacio Torrecilla, the mayors of Bilbao and Barakaldo, Iñaki Azkuna and Tontxu Rodríguez, respectively, and the Chairman of the Bizkaia Chamber of Commerce, José Ángel Corres.

After the opening speeches, the retinue paid an inaugural visit to discover at first hand the new machinery on show at some of the most outstanding stands in the four halls making up the fair.

Spanish manufacturers of machine tools, accessories, component parts and tools have come to the fair with their most advanced machinery, hoping that the necessary updating of industrial equipment will take place.

In his short speech, José Ignacio Torrecilla stressed the importance of the industrial sector in building a solid economic structure with a future. “And in industry”, the Chairman of AFM, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies recalled, “machine tools are at the start of every production process, they are the heart and soul of industry”.

For his part, the Industry Minister highlighted “that machine tools are an important sector for the government due to its technological nature and international dimension that will have and has a preferential place in Spanish industrial policy”.