From 25 to 27 October at Bilbao Exhibition Centre

The 2nd edition of STEEL TECH, Congress & Expo was presented this morning. The event, which will be held from 25 to 27 October at Bilbao Exhibition Centre, will bring together the main players in the international steel sector. The event was attended by Xabier Basañez, General Manager of BEC; Asier San Millán, General Manager of Siderex and Mª Carmen Gorostiza, STEEL TECH’s Event Manager.

A leading cutting-edge event and international benchmark in Southern Europe for the steel sector, STEEL TECH 2023 will go a step further in Industry 5.0 with a proposal at the highest level focused in three main areas: sustainability, collaborative platforms and resilience, as well as human capital. It will be a comprehensive experience encompassing the congress, exhibition and networking, and will seek to position the steel industry as a catalyst for innovation, technology, competitiveness and leadership in a highly dynamic and challenging global market.

To explore in depth the challenges and opportunities the sector presents, almost 40 renowned international experts will share their knowledge and experience at the STEEL TECH Congress and provide new perspectives to drive progress in the industry. The first day will begin with a presentation about STEEL 5.0 by Jean Théo Ghenda, Director of Technologies at Eurofer, the European Steel Association. This will be followed by the session focusing on SUSTAINABILITY with a presentation by Ana Fernández-Iglesias, the head of the Sustainable Resources R&D team at ArcelorMittal. Martin Pei, the Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of SSAB, and Denis Henessy, representing H2 Green Steel will then explain their areas of work as they relate to the production of low emission steel: green steel – the steel of the future. Hardy Mohbacher, the Managing Director of the Belgian consultancy Niobelcon BV; Yoshiyuki Hagiwara, the Senior General Manager at Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation, Pilar Esteban, an R&D Researcher at Tubacex I+D, and Colin Turndley, representing Nippon Gases, will address the challenges of decarbonisation in the steel industry. Topics such as the circular economy and smart waste management will also feature on the first day of the congress.

To explore these issues further, Bastian König, the Head of Technical Sales at SMS; David Algermissen, a Head of Department at FEHS and Tova Jarnerud, a Researcher at SWERIM AB, will take part in the event. Beatriz Nieto, the Head of the engineering unit at the Spanish National Hydrogen Centre, and Carlos Fúnez, the Green Hydrogen Developer manager at Iberdrola, will offer their perspective on new energy sources. Finally, Xavier Marcet, Chariman of Innovation Management, will offer his strategic vision on innovation management in 21st century management.

The second day’s congress programme will be divided into two thematic blocks. The first of these will focus on COLLABORATIVE PLATFORMS. Leyre Madariaga, the Director of Digital Transformation and Entrepreneurship for the Basque Government, will discuss the public-private acceleration programme BIND 4.0, “the largest open innovation platform for Industry”. The morning sessions will also include presentations by leading experts such as Jesús Murgoitio Larrauri, Project Director at Tecnalia; Juan Almagro, Laboratory & Research Sec. Manager at Acerinox; Stefan Eder, Research Associate at RHIM, and Asier Galdos, CEO at Magnet, who will address topics related to logistics solutions, collaborative services, equipment and smart project management.

The focus of the day’s second block will be on RESILIENCE. Thomas Heller, Managing Director at the German research organisation Fraunhofer, will be one of the keynote speakers. He will be followed by, among others, by experts such as Marco Busatto, representing IDOM INC USA; Ion Rusu, the R&D Manager at Polytec SPA; Günter Spreitzhofer, the Head of Application and Consulting at the measurement systems company for industry and energy IBA AG, and Rafael Margarit, the Digital Business Line Manager at the Swedish-Swiss technology multinational ABB. During their presentations, they will delve into the world of hyper-automation and explore its possibilities for process optimisation. Antonius Schröder, Member of the Management Board of the Social Research Centre at the University of Dortmund, will explore multi-cloud environments and their benefits, while Björn Glaser, Associate Professor and Head of the Unit of Processes at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, will focus on “monolith breaking: predictive analytics, energy management – microservices architecture”.

At the end of each thematic block, a round table discussion will be held to analyse the key conclusions from the presentations. The focus will be on human beings, highlighting their strategic role at the epicentre of the production process.

Exhibition and Networking

The STEEL TECH exhibition area will be attended by suppliers from the different levels of the steel industry value chain. These include such firms as: ABB; Arcelormittal Olaberria-Bergara; Bonak; Ceit BRTA; Deguisa; Etorki; Eurecat-Centro Tecnológico; GH Cranes & Components; Gosan; Harri Green Recycling; Harsco; Iba; IDOM; Jaso Industrial Cranes; Kalfrisa; Layde,Tata Steel; Lechler; LHYFE; Mesima; Norton; Octocam-Maps; Polytec Spa; Sarralle; Sidenor; Slingofer; Smarktec; Sorsa; TheSteelPrinters; Tube-Mac Piping Technologies; Tubos Reunidos Group Tubos-Productos; Unicoil and Vulkan Española SA.

In the area, networking B2B meetings will be held, with arranged meetings between exhibitors, sponsors and international VIP guests. In this context, Siderex organises, within the framework of the sectoral plan, “Steel industry: products, machinery and engineering”, which has been through an agreement with ICEX Spain Export and Investment, a reverse mission of high-level buyers from countries such as Chile, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India, Peru, Mexico and Turkey.

STEEL TECH will also offer other parallel activities, such as Innovation Workshops and a Technical Poster Zone showcasing 21 advances in the fields of technology, the environment and innovation, as well as other social events including an afterwork drink and a gala dinner. The latter, which will take place on 26 October, will feature the 2nd edition of the STEEL TECH Awards, which includes the Women in Steel Award, to recognise the outstanding career of a woman in the steel sector, and the Communication Forum Award, which will reward the dissemination and promotion of the steel sector. 27 October will feature a technical visit to the Vicinay Sestao facilities.

STEEL TECH will be recognised as a sustainable event with the Erronka Garbia seal of approval

The event will be certified as an Erronka Garbia event, a distinction awarded by the Basque Government’s Ihobe-Public Society for Environmental Management, to recognise its commitment to sustainability. To achieve this certification, an impact reduction plan has been designed that includes six main lines of action: mobility, energy, water, procurement, infrastructure and waste.

Examples of this include measures to adjust the intensity of light and temperature to the different time phases; to reduce the stands’ energy use; to minimise waste and its selective collection; the use of sustainable elements in signage and the development of awareness campaigns on these issues and others that have an impact on the environment, such as the use of public transport by attendees.

STEEL TECH 2023  enjoys the Platinum sponsorship by IDOM, Gold sponsorship by Grupo Arania, and Silver sponsorship by the companies Aceros Inoxidables Olarra, SteelPhalt and Fundación Tecnalia Research. It has the collaboration of Alacero and Unesid, and the support of SPRI, the Basque Business Development Agency, and ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones as Institutional Partners. The event is organised by Siderex and Bilbao Exhibition Centre.