The Metal-Expo Organising Committee discussed the preparations and programmes of next year's exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg
On 18 December, Moscow hosted the final meeting of this year's Metal-Expo Organising Committee. The committee comprises heads of industry ministries, unions and associations of metallurgy, machine building, construction and other industries, as well as research institutes. The experts discussed the events of the last autumn Metals Week and the preparation of the summer industrial exhibitions - Steel Structuries'2025, Metallurgy.Russia'2025, Litmash.Russia'2025 and Pipes.Russia'2025, which will be held in the new exhibition complex Timiryazev Centre in Moscow.
Alexander Romanov, Co-Chairman of the Organising Committee, informed the audience that Metal-Expo-2024, held from 29 October to 1 November in Moscow, attracted 31,716 specialists, marking a 30% year-on-year increase. The forum also grew to 45,000 square metres, hosting 780 exhibiting companies. The event provided a platform for metal market participants to showcase their latest products, projects, solutions, cutting-edge equipment and technologies, and to establish mutually beneficial business relations with suppliers and consumers.
In 2025, the exhibition will be held at the ExpoForum, the largest congress and exhibition centre in the North-West of Russia, located near Pulkovo Airport. The venue is well connected, with a hotel cluster nearby, making it very convenient for visitors. The Metal-Expo'2025 will become the largest exhibition in the North-West next year. To ensure optimal visitor experience, 'ExpoForum' will offer shuttle services from two metro stations and from the hotel "Pulkovskaya", located on Moskovsky Prospekt.
The vast majority of ExpoForum's space has already been allocated to companies, and the exposition will continue to be organised next year. Leading Russian metallurgical and machine-building companies, as well as enterprises from the CIS, Asia, the Middle East and some European countries, have expressed their desire to participate in Metal-Expo'2025.Delegations of 50-100 specialists will be working at the stands, and more than 4,000 people will be involved in the exposition.
The Association for the Development of Steel Construction (SCDA) has announced its participation in 97 events in 2025, with the objective of promoting the utilisation of rolled metal products in industrial and civil construction. This initiative, led by SCDA, will include roundtable discussions on the regulatory framework and the steel construction market, held as part of the Steel Structuries'2025 exhibition. The Zinc Development Centre will hold a conference on technologies and equipment in the field of hot-dip galvanising on 2 June, and the traditional seminar 'Zinc - protection against corrosion' will be held during Metal-Expo.
The exhibition in St. Petersburg will also create new opportunities for the Moscow Interbranch Association of Chief Welders, as the city has a high number of specialised enterprises, noted its head Yuri Podkopaev.The exhibition platform will attract enterprises from the foundry industry in St. Petersburg, noted Alexey Dymov, executive secretary of the Foundry and Forging and Pressing Committee of the Defence Enterprises Assistance League. The Melnikov Central Research and Development Institute of Steel Structures is also organising business events for specialists in the operation of steel structures.'There are a lot of customers and clients of our institute in the North-West region,' stated Natalia Silina, Director of STAKO.
The Titan Association will convene an open meeting of its board of directors during Metal Expo'2025 to discuss potential collaborations with shipbuilding enterprises, many of which operate in the North-West. The Titan Association's annual meeting is scheduled to take place in early June in Irkutsk and Baikal, as announced by Andrei Alexandrov, the Association's General Director.
In a period of declining production capacity utilisation and a softening market, the need for professional communication with consumers is growing, according to Viktor Kamelin, General Director of the Prommetiz Association. He emphasised that manufacturers must understand how to enhance their competitiveness in the declining market. Alexey Sentyurin, Executive Director of the Russian Steel Association, also confirmed the importance of cross-industry cooperation.
Twelve enterprises participated in this year's Metal-Expo from the international union Metallurgmash, which recently included such prominent members as Uralmash and Tyazhmash.Boris Sivak, the head of Metallurgmash, has announced that work on import substitution in the sphere of metallurgical equipment will continue next year. STAKO is planning to hold its debut conference on materials science in the nuclear industry in autumn, said Pavel Kozlov, deputy director of the institute.For 30 years Metal-Expo has established itself as an effective platform for solving the whole range of issues of metallurgical business. This positive trend is set to continue in St. Petersburg, a major centre of Russian metallurgy, home to renowned companies such as Severstal's Izhora Pipe Plant and SMC Kolpino, AEM-Technology (Rosatom), Precision Alloys Plant, Petrostal, Izhora Tube Rolling Plant (LNG), Krasny Vyborzhets, and the developer of new steel grades NTC Prometey.
'Holding the exhibition in a new location is an unambiguous challenge, but I am sure that the Metal-Expo team will successfully cope with it,' stated Alexey Kanaev, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Expert Council on Metallurgical and Mining Industry of the State Duma.
