Platform to Make Decisions

Another session of Metal-Expo’2011 Organizing Committee was held in Moscow on Mach 2. Among the member of the Organizing Committee are representatives of the key industrial unions and associations acting in the steel industry, construction, and machine-building, as well as heads of scientific and research institutions. For the first time representatives of Russian Steel (members of the Partnership account for 96% of the total domestic pig iron production, 89% of the total steel production, and 87% of the total domestic rolled products manufacture), Russian Builders’ Union (uniting construction companies located in 80 regions of Russia), and Union of Russian Designers consisting of 167 designer bureaus located in different regions of Russia participated in the session of the Organizing Committee. The member of the Organizing Committee discussed the program of events as well as the competitions which will be held within a framework of the exhibition.
Alexander Romanov, Co-Chairman of the Organizing Committee estimated that the number of professionals working on the stands during the exhibition would grow up to 4 thou. while the number of visitors would increase to about 30 thou. Among the visitors of the exhibition are consumers of ferrous and non-ferrous products representing the fuel and energy complex, construction, machine-building, transportation and logistics, as well as metal and steel trading. According to statistics provided by an independent auditing company more than 50% of Metal-Expo visitors are top-managers and decision-makers.
This year steel producers will carry out a number of the most important projects including commissioning of Mill 5000 at Vyksa Steel Works, cold-rolling mill 2000 at MMK, a rails and beams manufacture complex at Chelyabinsk Steel Works, a polymer coatings aggregate at Cherpoverts Steel Plant, a blast furnace at NLMK etc. Metal-Expo Organizing Committee has decided to choose the most important projects (from $100M) for the Event of the Year in the Steel Industry competition and award the companies at the gala dinner for the exhibitors of Metal-Expo’2011 on November 15 before more than 1000 professionals in the steel industry.
Another new competition this year has become For the Best Application of Steel and Aluminium in Construction. The competition for designers of architectural and building systems will be held within a framework of MetallStroyForum’2011 exhibition. Only latest projects will take part in the competition. K. Kizhel, Russian Builders’ Union established The Best Builder, a special award from the Union.
N. Melnikova, TsNIIPSK named after Melnikov said the Institute would take part in the competition as well as the competition among young scientists which had been held last year for the first time. The Organizing Committee has decided to increase the grants for the young scientists this year by involving the leading corporations which according to V. Remnyov, NIIZhB Director will be interested in their scientific researches.
A number of different competitions will be held during Metal-Expo’2011 and the Metal Week in Moscow while about 60 events will attract professionals in the steel and related industries. An exposition of innovative developments which received state grants will be arranged under the patronage of The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. In addition to that a big conference on development of pipeline and transportation projects in Russia and the CIS will be held during the exhibition. A conference on Steel Structures Design initiated by TsNIIPSK named after Melnikov will be held during MetallStroyForum’2011. In addition to that a conference on welding technologies initiated by V. Butov, Moscow Association of Chief Specialists will complement Steel in Construction: Present and Future, 2d National Congress. Among the new events are meeting of the key aluminium producers dedicated to carrying out of the program on stimulating of aluminium products consumption in various segments of the economy. A conference Equipmnet, Tools, and Auxiliary Products for the Hardware Industry initiated by Prommetiz Association will also be held.
On discussing the program of events during Metal-Expo, the members of the Organizing Committee told about the activity of their unions. V. Lavrischev, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and A. Senturin, Russian Steel stressed the importance of uniting the efforts of steel producers to find a consolidated solution. Metal-Expo every year hosting the session of the coordination council for the steel industry by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation can be considered as one of the consolidating platforms. At the session Russian Steel informs the state authorities about the consolidated position of the Russian steel producers on the most pressing problems. A. Senturin tols about the state of things and the future prospects of Russian Steel and noted that the members of the Partnership had participated in Metal-Expo for many years on a regular basis. For this reason the Executive Committee decided to become a member of Metal-Expo Organizing Committee to take the most active aprt in its oaganization.
B. Sivak, VNIIMETMASH told about the program of development of the machine-building industry within a framework of the newly adopted strategy of development of heavy machine-building up to 2020. A. Steblov Metallurgmash presented new projects of the Union: building of a mini-mill on Ruspolimet facilities and Balakhninsk Steel-Rolling Plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Yu. Raikov, Tsvetmetobrabotka Institute told about the state of things in the non-ferrous industry. V. Fedorov, Union of Regional Scrap Metal Recyclers suggested to discuss the issue of copper cathodes manufacture from scrap metal during Metal-Expo. The issues of scrap metal collecting and recycling will be discussed at a specialized conference during the exhibition. S. Stepanova, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs stressed that such issues as steel in construction and application of special metallurgy products in the high-tech industries should be widely discussed.
Due to all these events and innovations Metal-Expo’2011 is expected to increase by 20-25%.