ANNUAL REPORTS

ITA CHAIRMAN'S REPORT 2010/2011

32nd Annual General Meeting - Chairman’s report for 2010/11

2010/2011 has been a significant period for the ITA, during which there were a few important changes to the top of the committees in April 2010 and there has been a great deal for me to do. Dr Gunther Voswinckel, a major industry figure, became ITA president in succession to Professor Manabu Kiuchi, and I, as a president of Nakata Mfg. Co., succeeded Albert Sedlmaier as ITA chairman. 

I was pleased to record that our long standing President, Professor Kiuchi was honoured with the prestigious John C Hogg Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010 for his outstanding service to the ITA and at the same time was made Honorary Life President Emeritus.

Currently, the ITA membership has reached nearly 750 individuals from more than 70 countries worldwide. This has been achieved over recent years against a background of increased ITA activity globally. ITA membership has grown during the year and we have seen increases in the corporate membership category in China and India. Clearly, many of these issues are ongoing and of critical importance to the association.

In April 2010 the biennial Tube Düsseldorf, organised by Messe Düsseldorf and sponsored by the ITA took place, the world's biggest and most important forum for the industry's experts. Despite the Icelandic volcanic eruption problems, it was very successful with the highest ever exhibit space. There is every indication that the next edition, Tube Düsseldorf 2012, will again show further growth to new record levels of exhibit space.

In 2010 there was also successful participation by the ITA at exhibitions like Tube Russia, Tube China and in 2011 at Tube Arabia and Boru. The ITA also held a successful joint technical conference in Pittsburgh last year.

During 2011 we are planning Yokohama Tube & Pipe Joint Symposium with the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity (JSTP) on 13-16 June, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary during this period, and our European conference “Pipe & Tube World Conference, Düsseldorf” on 7-8 November. In addition, we will be supporting as industry partner Tube Russia in Moscow, Tube Southeast Asia in Bangkok and Tubotech in Brazil.

We strongly urge members to get behind the Yokohama Symposium and the Düsseldorf conference and show support for these important events. These conferences represent an excellent opportunity to learn and update one’s skill-base from exposure to a range of first-rate local and international speakers. Thus we would call on all members to actively promote these excellent educational opportunities.

In closing, I would like to thank all members of the association for the considerable support and encouragement I have received throughout the past year as chairman. In particular, I would like to thank our Executive Secretary Phillip Knight for his huge support in the day-to-day management. I wish the ITA every success and the development for the future.

Tsutomu Nakata
Chairman
International Tube Association
May 2011

TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE REPORT

Technical Management Committee (TMC) Report 2010/2011

S. Loynes (Chairman);
A. Sedlmaier, C. Jackson, M. Bull, Prof. M. Kiuchi, M. Pollard, R. Natarajan

2010 was a successful year for ITA sponsored conferences. The first was a joint conference with the TPA in the USA, Pipe and Tube Pittsburgh. It was very well attended at an excellent venue close to the airport. The table top exhibition was very successful bringing an interesting array of products and services for the tube industry. The ITA’s North American Management Board is recommending another joint conference with the TPA in Nashville, USA in 2012.

The second conference organised jointly with MC-CCPIT took place in September in Shanghai, China, at Tube China 2010. There were many Chinese papers and a few from the rest of the world. The content was excellent and gave the participants a greater understanding of the Chinese tube industry from both a technical and commercial stand point.

The third conference was at Beijing University in November 2010 organised by the ITA’s China representatives the CCRSA. The University provided a world class purpose built lecture theatre for this well attended event. Research into sheet metal forming was demonstrated in the Universities workshops, a first for an ITA event.  The quality and breadth of papers was a real credit to the presenters from China, some of whom spoke in English. I look forward to more Chinese conferences.

Our next event will be a joint symposium with JSTP in Yokohama, Japan, in June 2011. We have enjoyed the success of these conferences in the past because of their professional organisation and depth of subject matter. The works visits and hospitality have been excellent. Let us hope that the effect of the dreadful earth quake and devastating tsunami in the north of Japan will not delay the conference.

In November 2011 we are organising our major biennial conference in the Congress Centre Dusseldorf: Pipe and Tube World Conference 2011”Technology Updates and Market Projections”. We are working closely with several organisations including the German Steel Tube Association and ESTA (European Steel Tube Association) to make this event a success. The focus is on large diameter pipes, OCTG, pressure and precision tubes.There will be several market and commercial overviews and many papers describing exciting new technology for the tube industry. SMS Meer, the main sponsor, is hosting an evening at its workshops for us to see close up, its tube making equipment manufacturing facility.

The quality and high technical content of the papers presented last year were a credit to the tube industry. I should like to encourage a greater involvement from the tube manufacturing sector of our industry because they have a very important part to play in explaining an understanding of tube making technology.

In our ITA conferences we are striving to give the tube industry a good variety of technical papers while introducing commercial matters and economic overviews to give a real breadth to the content.

Stephen Loynes
TMC Chairman
May 2011