Firstly, let’s get the pleasantries out the way and wish you a happy New Year, albeit belatedly.
Looking ahead it promises to be an exciting year, a Bauma year, where hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of euros, pounds and dollars are invested by the major OEMs to persuade you that their kit is the best. It’s also a year when the sale of comfortable shoes skyrockets as visitors to Munich look to eschew style for practicality, given the many kilometres they will dutifully walk amidst the 614,000m2 (at the last count) of exhibition space. By the way that’s 200,000m2 of indoor space and 414,000m2 outdoors.
Seasoned visitors will know to take it easy, first timers will stand in awe, wondering where to start. Some commentators say that you really do need the week to get round everything on show but realistically three of four days is sufficient, if only because after that time your senses get overwhelmed and physically you are a wreck. Mercifully transport in and out of the venue is plentiful and efficient, so you can soon find yourself in a nice bar in the middle of Munich nursing a 50cl glass of Augustiner by 6.30pm – other beers are available.
Hopefully CPN will bring you a bit of a Bauma taster in the next issue and definitely a lengthy round-up of what we see in following issues. The exhibitions five key topics – climate neutrality, sustainable construction, alternative drive concepts, networked construction and mining challenge – are bound to stimulate plenty of debate and it will be interesting to see how exhibitors weave those themes into their marketing, promotion and stand displays.
Talking of stand displays, several major names began building their outdoor stands in October last year including the likes of Liebherr, Peri and Wirtgen. It just goes to show how serious manufacturers are when it comes to participating in the show and what an undertaking it is. Sometimes one wonders how these OEMs justify the expense, the time and effort, the allocation of vast resources to be present at Bauma but then one is perhaps forgetting the show’s allure, popularity and impact. It certainly brings in the visitors, nearly half a million of them at 2022’s staging.
Whether this year’s exhibition is similarly successful, only time will tell. Our gut feel at CPN is that everything points to a hugely well attended, vibrant and lively show, given the current transition the construction equipment industry is experiencing. Visitors, whether they are owner/operators, contractors, fleet owners or distributors, will descend on Bauma to get a feel for the direction of travel for the construction equipment market. The answers they get from exhibitors will determine whether they invest in leaner, cleaner and greener machines now or in the future. It promises to be an interesting week, we can’t wait. See you there!
Happy reading
The CPN Team
