From 19th to 21st October 2021 at Bilbao Exhibition Centre

Bilbao Exhibition Centre and Siderex, Cluster Association of Steelworks, present STEEL TECH, Congress & Expo, a biennial professional event which aims to become the leading international meeting point in Southern Europe for the steel sector. Technological advances throughout the whole value chain, promising ongoing research and technological innovation in the steel industry will be the main features of this event, which will hold its first edition from 19th to 21st October 2021 at BEC. Steel production is in the region’s DNA, with a solid manufacturing industry all over the Basque Country, placing it in 12th position in the European steel production ranking, with a productive capacity of 39% of the Spanish total.

In the words of Carlos Álvarez, President of Siderex, “STEEL TECH has come about as a reference point for the iron and steel industry where the sector’s main challenges in the near future are addressed and overcome”. “Due to its history and tradition, the Basque Country is a geographic area with a high iron and steel and industrial concentration at a national and European level, covering companies from the entire value chain of the steel manufacturing process and auxiliary industry. Therefore, we believe that organising an event of these characteristics in our region is common sense”, explains Carlos Álvarez.

For his part, Xabier Basañez, General Director of Bilbao Exhibition Centre, recognizes that “BEC is working on several strategic projects and on laying the bases for others that will be developed over the coming years. Activity has not ceased and it is precisely in this area that we were indebted to an essential sector of this county: the iron and steel industry”. “For this reason, we propose an event with an extremely modern format and linked to innovation. It is a necessary meeting point for the sector, which will transversally incorporate themes and content to address the major challenges faced by the iron and steel industry: technological transformation and the circular economy”, pointed out Basañez.

Siderex and BEC have signed a collaboration agreement that aims to work together in the organisation and promotion of STEEL TECH. The event will combine the congress and exhibiting areas, stimulating knowledge transfer and networking. With this purpose, the event’s organisers are already working on the design of an extensive programme of conferences and high level congress activities to address innovation and technology in the iron and steel industry.

Over two full days, prestigious national and international speakers will discuss the sector’s major challenges and trends and will offer their own experiences. The first day’s conference programme will be more global and will analyse steel solutions and uses in strategic user sectors, such as the automotive, energy, naval, railway and construction sectors, among others.  Within this knowledge framework, different use cases will be revealed.

The second day, 20th October, will focus on “steel of the future and challenges”.  The panel will include talks on the challenges faced by the dual digital and sustainable transition, such as  smartisation, artificial intelligence, the circular economy – scrap recovery, recycling and management – and cybersecurity. Technical visits to several plants will be organised on the third day of the event.

Suppliers from different levels of the iron and steel sector’s value chain will participate in the exhibiting area at Steel Tech, who will have a quality exhibition space where their products and services can be discovered. The business areas represented will consist mainly of steel production, hot and cold steel transformers, manufacturers and suppliers of machinery and equipment, components and spare parts, raw materials, service centres, technological centres and other services, such as waste management, cranes, machinery cleaning, among others.

In addition to participating in the exhibition area and attending the Congress, exhibiting companies will be able to show their technical and commercial proposals in the diverse parallel activities that will be held during the event. They will also have the opportunity to strengthen their commercial relations on a national and international level through different spaces created to promote networking, with actions, such as B2B meetings and multiple events of a more social nature.

Steel Tech is aimed at steel producers; engineering firms and EPCs; importers, distributors, traders and service centres; hot and cold steel transformers; components and machinery manufacturers from various user sectors; technology and research centres; institutions and administration; universities and vocational training; certifiers and consultancy firms. They will all find a unique opportunity to analyse the market first-hand, study new opportunities and create solid commercial contacts at this event.

Steel Tech is organised by Bilbao Exhibition Centre and Siderex with the collaboration of UNESID -Union of Iron and Steel Companies-, SPRI Group and the Basque Government.