Editorial by Till Schreiter, new chairman of VDMA metallurgy

Dear Reader,
In Germany the carnival season is just over and for the Christians living in Germany the feast period has started, for other religions it will start in the coming weeks. In the Rhine area we also say “the great days are over”. If we are looking at the global economy and the free trade, it also feels that wild days are over, at least for certain industries and regions in the world.

German environmentalists are happy to announce that gas consumption in Germany has been decreased by 5% in 2023 compared to 2022. Looking at that number in more detail, we see that the gas consumption in the industrial sector has decreased by 18,3% in the same period. While the industrial sector accounts 59% of the total gas consumption it becomes obvious that the private sector increased its consumption while the industrial sector consumed less.

Unfortunately, the savings in the industrial sector are not yet driven by introducing new energy efficient technologies but mainly by reduced production and business activities. As the German Engineering Federation VDMA reports incoming orders in 2023 fell by 12% compared to 2022. For sure this does not count for all global economies.

The good news: midterm the growing worldwide population and the increasing private consumption will lead to an increased demand for metal production in line with the demand of more green products.

What does that mean for our industries? For our industry production routes must be capable to use green energy (green electricity or green hydrogen), high energy efficiency and to be operational and maintainable by unskilled workforces. For us as machine and pant builders its means that business will shift in different regions, and we must increase our global setup to support our customers in these new markets. While there are proven technologies to work with green energy, we must make our technology more intelligent to increase energy efficiency by intelligent process planning, to improve availability by intelligent maintenance and to support unskilled workers by using artificial intelligence covering for missing experience.

This edition of “Heat Processing” covers exactly those requirements.

If there is one thing I learnt, we always found solutions for today’s challenges by using modern technology and being able to contribute to the success of our important industry. Enjoy reading this interesting edition of “Heat Processing”, all the best and “Glück auf”!

Yours, Till Schreiter
CEO / Managing Director ABP Induction Systems GmbH & Chairman of VDMA Metallurgy

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