This year we had the most important Italian exhibition for sheet metal production and deformation — Lamiera 2023. How it was?
First, about actual numbers — around 400 companies exhibited (27% of international out of Italy), 22 countries of exhibitors, public space around 40000 square meters, approx. 19000 visitors and 4000 from the exhibition Made in Steel (we don’t know if is it included in 19 thousand or not).
Compared to the total number of visitors, 7.5% came from abroad representing 67 nations. The most numerous delegations came from Albania, Austria, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, and Hungary.
Some comments that 15% growth of exhibition stands compare to the 2022 edition.
The main information could be found on the official website of Lamiera exhibition
Brief in expectations of Lamiera exhibition
Now let us speak about our real opinion of the visit.
Lamiera 2021 was the show that was waited for a lot. Due to the COVID period, it was postponed for one year and appeared only in 2022. Because of this, there is some misunderstanding — in reality, it was Lamiera 2021, not Lamiera 2022 but the year was 2022.
Some companies have their marketing and promotional program to participate in a period of 2 years and for this reason in 2022 for example, Trumpf company was presented but it was not in Lamiera 2023. It is just for example but I believe several names use such a strategy and were not at the exhibition because they were before. Probably for Italian companies it is possible and important to be represented each time, but it is another situation for big international companies — for them it is a regional exhibition.
The full exhibition is in 2 big pavilions. To tell the truth, it is not so big exhibition and also we just want to note again — previously in 2016 the exhibition was made in Bologna and there it was bigger than it was transferred to Milan in 2017. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful to find the number of closing in 2016 but in my personal opinion — even if it was not bigger for the number of exhibitors, for sure it was bigger with the main booths construction and activity.
We want to tell you about the registered numbers in 2012 we founded — 40000 square meters, 451 companies (41% of abroad), 18192 official registered visits, and 787 abroad. So the numbers are similar to 10 years later. And probably it is also not the story of the success and unsuccess of the particular exhibition — it is also the story of Internet use and the possibility at home or office to see all videos, and data, to establish contacts, receive offers without a real need to come personally to the company at the booth. For sure exhibitions till now have a big importance to have the personal contact and to perform final negotiations of contracts for example, or to touch in life any machine tool you need but for sure we should underline that there is a big quantity of people who make a lot of distant work.
Italian market and steel suppliers
The Italian market is very strong in both ways — in machine tools building and manufacturing and for using these machine tools for the sheet metal industry. There are a lot of big names for manufacturers who are well known on all continents and supply worldwide including the USA, South America, and Australia for example. So exhibition of Lamiera for these companies and one more chance to show their advantages, presence, and possibilities even for Italian customers because the main customer and main visitor for the Lamiera show is Italian visitor.
Moreover, this time it was connected with the “MADE IN STEEL” exhibition — another show dedicated to supplies of raw materials or semi-prepared, for example — coils. So for business owners and operators, it was not only the chance to see the machine tools and manufacturing solutions but also to look for suppliers in raw products and materials with the best conditions of delivery. And it was even a little bit strange to see how “MADE IN STEEL” was occupied, compared to the Lamiera exhibition (probably also thanks to the free entrance) it was overcrowded with a lot of people.
So now let’s go inside… First and we point it out every time — Italian exhibitions like Lamiera, BIMU, etc. are free. It is very good, it allows you to enter the next day if you need and can attract more visitors like students for example.
Exposition of punching tools of Prima Power company
As a supplier of punching tools and press brake tools we have seen our competitors in this business but not so many, some actual companies were completely not presented. Tools are a special business and the importance of the customer is much lower than for machine tools because even if you will be successful to sell it could be just an order for 300–400 EUR and not 100–500 hundred thousand EUR as the new machine. So the price for the space is the same but the price to get the customer’s business card is much much higher. That is why all the tooling manufacturers think twice about the representation in the exhibition moreover a good position is very important because otherwise, only half or even less of visitors will see you at the exhibition.
We can tell one interesting thing about Lamiera and other industrial exhibitions of machine tools – there you can find some manufacturers which you do not find at the international exhibitions in Germany for example. The reasons are very different – from missing of budget for bigger industrial exhibitions worldwide to the thing that there is no active representative office in other country. Italy is very strong with sheet metal working machines and some famous and strong names which are well known and respected in Italy but probably are mainly unknown outside.
At finally…
For big booths as we told we haven’t seen such companies like Trumpf or Bystronic which have really big booths at the Lamiera.
For the rest — it is the same as in previous years. Have we seen something particularly new with technologies or machinery? Probably now. One thing probably it is possible to see — there are a lot and a lot of laser cutting machines and they are concentrated to represent now more power and more thick materials for cutting. So 30 KW source and 40 mm thickness for cutting are realistic. Several companies made their marketing on this to show the enormous power source and thick cutting. We believe it is really hard today to choose the laser because the competition in this market is incredible from the Italian names to Asian equipment and much lower prices but real representation for servicing, installation, and technical issues.
If to compare to German exhibitions like BlechExpo or Euroblech we can see much fewer robotic solutions, fewer deburring machines from non-Italian manufacturers, and not so much plasma machinery (because everybody concentrated on lasers).
Anyway as we told you before — the exhibition is the main important in Italy and we hope for the next growth, the next good show and the main industrial grow. It was also nice to see our contacts, partners, and customers.
This post is also published on @Medium
