VDMA, the largest network organisation for the mechanical engineering industry in Germany and Europe, declared last week’s Bauma a roaring success, not least the crowds of visitors from home and abroad.
Many manufacturers used the fair to present their innovations for digitalisation and automation for construction sites and mining, a development that according to the VDMA can no longer be stopped.
For the first time, 50 start-ups were represented in the innovation hall. Together with MiC 4.0, the Science Hub, a VR area and the bauma Forum, a wide range of new projects and research work could be seen here over five days. Together with the THINK BIG! programme for schoolchildren at the ICM, everything revolved around the topic of the future.
“We are already in the middle of a profound phase of transformation,” said Joachim Schmid, managing director of VDMA construction machinery and building material plants “The successful course of the trade fair confirms to us that this realisation has arrived in the construction industry and is being accepted by customers. Only smaller, regionally operating companies are not quite so optimistic about the situation. For them, the downturn in residential construction holds great challenges.”
With around 3,200 exhibitors from 60 countries and more than 495,000 trade fair visitors from over 200 countries, the expectations of the industry were far exceeded. The share of international exhibitors was just under 65 percent.
