The event will hold its first edition from 19 to 21 October at Bilbao Exhibition Centre.

STEEL TECH, Congress & Expo, will offer top-level Technical Workshops including renowned experts on the 19th and 20th of October at Bilbao Exhibition Centre. The event’s programme will focus on innovation and technology within the iron and steel industry, and will be split into two sessions (morning and afternoon) each day. In total, the event will host about 20 talks that will begin with a brief presentation of the guest speaker and will end with a round table to openly debate the issue. These round tables will include the main clusters and companies of the sector and will discuss the most relevant conclusions of the talks.

In this sense, the “Solutions and applications of steel in the strategic user sectors such as construction, automotive, railway and energy industries” will be featured in the first day’s Technical Workshops. Dr. Hans-Willi Raedt, CEO at Prosimalys, will be responsible for opening the event with his keynote speech on Current trends in steel technology for forged products; lightweight design, new steels… After him, representatives from prestigious companies such as Gestamp will speak on Advanced developments in Steel for Electrical vehicles; Thielmann will expound on its strategic approach to Safe transport and storage of damaged lithium ion batteries in stainless steel containers; while Windar Renovables will discuss its Strategic Product review for structural steel in Wind Energy, addressing the latest trends in the steel industry.

Carlos Capdevilla will also speak in representation of CENIM-CSIC (Spanish Centre for Metallurgical Research), with a speech on Embrittlement-resistant steels for a safe hydrogen economy. The programme for the first day will be further completed with speeches by representatives of companies such as Tubacex Innovación, Vicinay Marine and Enagas, among others.

The “Steel for the next decades, future steel” will be the main topic for the second day of workshops, with speeches on digitalisation, automation, cybersecurity, and the circular economy. The morning will start with the keynote by Carlos Alba, Chief Digital Officer of Arcelormittal Global R&D, who will present the company’s positioning regarding digitisation. He will be followed by Miles Shepard, VP for Business Development North America of IDOM, with a speech on The use of digital tools in steelmaking plants; Enrico Plazzogna, representing Danieli Automation SPA, will expound on The importance of digital transformation for a sustainable and intelligent plant; and Eneko Sedano, from SARRALLE, will focus on the Excelsior Steel Process Intelligence for EAF, the challenge to evolve from the dependency on people to the automatism of smart processes.

Gisele Widdershoven, from Accenture The Netherlands, and Enrico Malfa, representing Tecnova Spa & Estep, will also offer their vision on the sector with a keynote speech on cybersecurity and the circular economy, respectively.

Systematic and Integral refractory waste management; White slag recovery on raw materials; as well as the Advanced Research in the field of Mineral-based Industrial Waste as Secondary Raw Materials for the formulation of new Organic Products will be some of the topics addressed by companies such as Sidenor I+D, Celsa Group, and Acerinox Europe during the afternoon session. The third day will include technical visits to different plants.

In this dynamic context characterised by an exchange of knowledge, this event will become a strategic meeting point for steelworks, steel transformers,  machinery, equipment and component suppliers, and users from different industrial sectors. Steel Tech will definitely offer an opportunity to boost commercial relations through different spaces created to promote networking, with actions such as the Innovation Workshops, B2B meetings, and different social events, like the gala dinner.

Steel Tech, an event organised by Bilbao Exhibition Centre and Siderex -Basque Steel Cluster-, also has the collaboration of SPRI- the Basque Government and UNESID- Spanish Association of Companies Producing Steel and Primary Steel Processing Products, and the Platinum Sponsorship of IDOM, Gold Sponsorship of Sarralle, and Silver Sponsorship of Olarra, Tecnalia, Metalia, and Harsco.