When it looks hopeless, life somehow finds a way to survive
Published 4/3 at 10:07After the Christmas and New Year holidays, work started again, with the Intermat Exhibition’s press days for the international media starting things off. Perhaps not as many exhibitors as hoped for participated, but enough were there to make the event interesting and worthwhile. A few days later, it was time to head to the World of Concrete show in Las Vegas, which would turn out to be the best edition of the show in many years as the American market is highly optimistic – a stark contrast to the pessimism found in many parts of Europe today.
The market situation in Europe is now better than expected, as in the autumn of 2023, voices from many of Europe's countries expressed higher levels of concern than they do today just a few months later. Several of the countries have succeeded in curbing inflation that arose as an effect of the war in Ukraine, and the subsequent energy crisis, when many countries had to stop buying energy from Russia. The latter transition actually went more smoothly than expected, and it would appear that Europe has managed to switch to alternative, but more costly, forms of energy. We're not quite there yet, but well on our way.
As it looks right now, the war in Ukraine is not going to end anytime soon. The restrictions against Russia continue have been strengthened. Due to this, many European companies have lost a great deal of business as operations in Russia have had to be shut down and Russian staff dismissed. Today, for example, it is completely impossible to transfer payments either to or from Russia. Amongst the reasons is that the banks have cut off Swift payments. The European states, with the help of the European banks, also do not allow direct or indirect money transfers as they can be perceived as support for Putin's regime. The war affects everyone in one way or another, but as is often said, when it looks hopeless, life somehow finds a way to survive.
For the European demolition industry, it is soon time for Europe's, indeed perhaps the world's, largest gathering to take place again. Fachtagung Abbruch in Berlin will take place on 22 March. More than 120 suppliers to the demolition industry will be exhibiting and, so far, 1,200 people have registered to attend the conference day. As usual, PDi Magazine will report on the event. You will find information on this and on many other interesting subjects in the magazine which I trust you will enjoy.
Jan Hermansson
Editor-in-Chief
jan.hermansson@pdworld.com
