ANNUAL REPORTS

ITA CHAIRMAN'S REPORT 2008/2009

30th Annual General Meeting - Chairman’s Report for 2008/9

Our last annual general meeting (AGM) was held in Düsseldorf on April 2nd, 2008 on the occasion of TUBE Düsseldorf 2008 exhibition, where visitors from all over the world had a great platform to communicate. It is the world’s largest tube show of its kind, supported by the ITA and co-organised by Messe Düsseldorf and in fact this show has been the most successful ever Tube Düsseldorf with record numbers of exhibitors and visitors.

Similarly the Tube China show continues to show impressive growth as well.

Despite the global economic situation the ITA remains confident that in the medium and long term the industry prospects will be good. The forthcoming Istanbul conference, for which plans are well advanced and substantial sponsorship obtained, will feature for the first time a market overview session that should prove most useful in providing expert views/ predictions for the industry’s recovery from recession.

Finances of the ITA are in good order with a further strengthening of the balance sheet. This has been achieved over recent years against the background of increased ITA activity globally.

The ITA attended two regional exhibitions earlier this year, Tube Arabia in Dubai and Boru in Istanbul. Both are supported by the ITA and are now well established as important events in their respective market areas.

In the last 12 months closer ties have been established with other industry organisations like IWMA, IWCEA and TPA, all of which are proving very useful for the planning of future events and policies for the metal working industries.

I would like to thank all officers of the ITA and members of the various international management boards and Technical Management Committee for their dedication to the ITA and their support.  Thanks also to the Secretariat and Intras for all their assistance through this very busy year.

Dipl.-Ing Albert Sedlmaier
Chairman
International Tube Association
May 2009

TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE REPORT

Technical Management Committee (TMC) Report 2008/9

Chairman: Stephen Loynes

Committee: Albert Sedlmaier, John Metcalfe, Carl Jackson, Mike Bull,
Terry Banach, John Powell, Ram Natarajan

In comparison with previous years 2008/9 has been very quiet except for the planning for our major conference in Istanbul in November 2009 and considering our future conference strategy.

The Best Technical Speaker’s Award was presented at Dusseldorf  “TUBE” 2008 to K.Sasaki, of Sumitomo Metals for his high quality paper entitled “Manufacturing Technology of Medium Size Seamless Pipe”.

There have been discussions related to the type and method of presentation of future ITA technical conferences. Suffice to say that “face to face” conferences are very useful in terms networking and through discussion provide a deeper understanding of the subject. However, to reach a much wider audience and using modern technology other methods of communication are being investigated for the future.

Istanbul Pipe and Tube 2009 “Technology for Quality, Productivity and Profit” promises to be another significant conference event for the ITA. A very important and welcome change will be the inclusion of commercial papers giving an oversight of the world economy with specific reference to our industry. 

A conference is being organised by the APMB together with Mr Ding of CCRSA to be held in China in 2010.

There have been a number of changes to the Technical Management Committee. I should like to welcome Ram Natarajan, representing the IMB, Don Bugden representing the AMB.

John Powell has resigned from all this activities with the ITA following his retirement from the industry and we await the APMB appointment of his successor.

Stephen Loynes
TMC Chairman
20th May 2009