ACHEMA opens in Frankfurt, Germany and reports over 2,200 exhibitors from more than 50 countries represented. The global event showcases equipment and processes for the chemical, pharma and food industries and covers topics including the digital lab, product and process security and modular and connected production. The focus of the opening press conference was international cooperation and innovation. Industry experts stressed their importance for achieving climate goals and addressing challenges such as security of supply and stable supply chains.
From August 22 – 26, 2022, producers of lab equipment and processing components, plant engineering companies, automation providers and material developers exhibit their latest products and technologies. Around half of the exhibitors come from abroad, according to a press release from the show. Despite existing travel restrictions, 74 exhibitors from China reportedly are represented at ACHEMA 2022. The response from India also remains high with 143 exhibiting companies. At the opening press conference against the backdrop of recent political developments, the importance of sustainability and international cooperation reportedly came into focus.
Dr Wolfgang Große Entrup, director general of the German chemical industry association (VCI), emphasizes that these businesses would stick to their goals despite sharp rises in production costs and falling sales volumes. “We won’t be diverted from the path to transformation that we started on years ago. Protecting the climate, conserving resources, and preserving a circular economy will be no mean feat. But we will tackle these issues,” says Große Entrup. “Our industry wants and needs to reconcile its ability to transform and be competitive. It benefits neither the individual nor the climate if our businesses flee the EU as a result of monstrous requirements and relocate their production to countries with run-of-the-mill standards.”
As chairman of the ACHEMA Committee, Jürgen Nowicki says that international cooperation can only be overcome through collaboration. “The process industry, our community that we gather here at ACHEMA, holds many key elements, many pieces of the puzzle to solve, in their hands,” says Nowicki, citing the rapid development and provision of high-performance vaccines, the effective contributions towards energy efficiency by providing the technological basis for the use of renewable energy sources or by giving circular economy the technologies needed for successful recycling, and the electrochemistry crucial for e-mobility as examples of the industry's innovative strength.
Read the press release at: www.achema.de/en/press