|
Today it seems to me that things are moving clearly faster after the
downtime that took place on
summer and fall of last year.
Speculations have been given about the
reason for this downtime.. Asian economy, Brazil, EURO-Introduction,
Russia's economical problem, General Nervousness, even "Clinton & Lewinsky" case...
You just name it. Probably all those had some sort of effect.
I have personally noticed that things are moving faster now - during last
months especially in Japan, Germany and US. Would this mean that Asia is starting
it's recovery and Germany in Europe is getting up again after few years downtime?
Second. What comes to the concentration of Automotive and A/C Industries you must have
noticed that Renault just bought a part of Nissan. Rumors on Fiat and Mitsubishi
are also known. With A/C side Carrier and Toshiba started business together.
Tubular products are important for both of these industries and
only the future will show us the effects that this concentration
makes.
I'm looking all this from my own angle, but I see no
reason why this concentration would not continue. With our
industry, I think that the partners, that has a strong
position with those "dominant" Automotive and A/C players can
specify their specs and their products instead of those others. Meaning,
if your product or spec is used by the dominant one,
you will be a winner too.
Last but not least, a note on visiting statistic: One milestone again. 30000
hits on the main page of TubeNet. It took only 3 months now to
get 10000 hits more. In fact, the hits per week just started to
exceed 1000.
Juha Haapala
P.S. Please give your entry on the show-survey as I am still
waiting for response. 200+ received until now.
| 
