Tube Russia

Something new for a change: Tube Russia. Based on my everyday dealings with Tube and Pipe Industry I have noticed that Russia is definitely getting up. Therefore, it was not a surprise to me that the organizers of Tube Dusseldorf show wanted to expand their concept to Russia area also beside Tube Singapore and Tube India.

The concept was the same as in Dusseldorf: Tube and Wire show. All arrangements went "by the book" based on the experience of the well trimmed team. Even customs formalities to Russia seemed to work well since they can be tricky. I only heard that one Taiwanese Bending Machine Manufacturer had their machine jammed to the customs which they got released at the end of the show. When writing this I don't know yet how the return shipments have gone. Hopefully they worked well also.

I noticed that German manufacturers were exposing there pretty strongly. The rumor was that Germany is directly financing Russian companies to make investments since the biggest problem with Russian firms is lack of funds. I don't have confirmation for this rumor but it would match well how the German companies were exposing there. Anyhow, Almost all German companies were at the same pavilion which had this "Made in Germany" logo everywhere.

I also noticed with pleasure that TubeNet's grand old members like T-DRILL, Prüftechnik, Foerster, VAI, Emmedi, MIT and Addison had their booth at Tube Moscow.

The show itself was something as I was expecting. Visitors came and showed their interest but not too much direct talk of sales. It was from Monday to Thursday and result was that Tuesday turned out to be the most busy day. On the last day I was talking with several Tube-people and the comments about the show were pretty neutral. Not high hopes but presence there was considered important. What about complaints? Well, there was just one complaint that I heard often: The promotion of Tube Russia show inside Russia was not carried out as broadly as, for example, in Germany they do. Next time this is matter that organizers should pay more attention. This is also my personal opinion.

From tube fabrication machine sales point of view I got an impression that in Russia there are case-by-case possibilities today but it will still take time before investments will really start. The problem still is that the industry that fabricates tubing is not that established yet, so it will take some time when these machinery will start selling better. From Tube production point of view, situation is much different. There are much resources to make tubes and pipe in Russia already and it is likely that machinery investment with tube production sector will increase more rapidly.

But I feel that change to a better Russia is reality. The manufacturing costs there are still low and the confidence of the country has been improved a lot. My personal opinion is also that President Putin has done a lot for this development.

Now I will taste the Real Russian Vodka that my friend Sergey recommended me to buy (Many thanks for you - it was good time in Moscow). I cannot figure out these Russian letters anything else but Platinium is in English. It is good Vodka. No "vibrations".

Well, let's see how Stockholm Marathon will work out next weekend after all this.

Cheers,
Juha