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See you in Shanghai
editorial
See you in Shanghai
Richard Felton editor
N
ext month sees the third in the biennial series of PM Asia Conferences and Exhibitions – PM Asia 2009. There will be a lot of people there and, naturally, we hope that readers of Metal Powder Report will be among them. Once again we have chosen the vibrant city of Shanghai to stage the event. It is the business centre of the most vigorous economy in Asia and also centre of Chinese powder metallurgy. So the city is the same as the previous events for all the right reasons. One of the principles upon which the PM Asia Conference and Exhibition series has been built is trade, that vital exchange between individuals,
companies, countries and cultures that accompanies the growth and spread of wealth. One small change this year is the location within Shanghai. PM Asia 2009 will be staged at the Shanghai Everbright Hotel and Exhibition Centre. But a much more significant change this time round is our greater involvement in the milieu of China. Building on our belief that co-operation is an essential for progress in any sphere where cultures meet, PM Asia 2009 will be co-located with CCE China, the major Chinese cemented carbides exhibition. Together the two exhibitions and the PM Asia 2009 Conference make an attractive package across the powder metallurgy world. There are those in the PM industry that make a difference between powder metallurgy and cemented carbides (hardmetals) on the ground that tungsten carbides are ceramics – even though tungsten is a metal. Metal Powder Report has never agreed with that point of view. PM and hardmetals are closely related powder technologies that share much in tooling and technique. In nearly every issue of the magazine we publish at least one hardmetal-related feature and as a result have built up a substantial body of published
Back at the Last Chance Saloon THE question that has to be answered
seems certain now to be When? It’s no longer If companies like General Motors can avoid some form of bankruptcy. GM blew very nearly $31 billion in 2008, Billions more will have burned in the past three months, including, of course, the more-than-$13 billion advanced by the government. Meanwhile, the company is trying to negotiate a huge rescue package from the Obama Administration, a process that involves reaching a deal with investors who have seen the value of their
3
MPR March 2009
holdings put to the sword in the past 12 months – down more than 90% to languish among the penny stocks. It is also in talks with the scapegrace leaders of the UAW, whose ruthless “dedication to their members’ interests” has contributed so much to this mess. Most people could conclude that it’s time to put an end to the circus; to arrange some form of governmentdirected bankruptcy that will eradicate the useless management and preserve the supplier base – which includes the PM supply chain.
academic work to rival some wholly dedicated Journals covering the topic. Trade and business is one aspect of PM Asia 2009, and an important one. The conference addresses the other underlying principle of the event: information exchange. With distinguished contributions from both Chinese and international engineering and academic disciplines, PM Asia 2009 restates and underscores the importance of research in driving progress forward. To that end there will be papers and discussion on high-performance PM applications in the automotive sector; developments in materials for PM structural parts; production technology development; metal injection moulding; cutting tool applications of hard materials and magnetics. A wide enough ranging menu of discussion to satisfy most tastes. But in closing, I think I should address one question that has come at us from different directions in the recent past, coloured by stories of financial turmoil (never mind scandal as light relief) and business uncertainty. Why are you continuing with this type of activity when it would be more prudent to wait for better times? Well, along with millions of others, we looked at the global situation and the way it affected China and, yes, we saw that the Chinese economy is suffering, particularly through a downturn in exports. But we also saw that the Chinese government has put in places measures aimed at supporting the automotive market –always a major PM customer. China is also a big producer of hardmetal machine tooling, one of the things that will be remarkably fast to respond to any upturn. So though times may be tough right now, there are many seeds for the future. But perhaps above all, we believe that the original underlying premise of the PM Asia Conference and Exhibition series was right: that information exchange and trade really are the way forward.
metal-powder.net
See you in Shanghai
Richard Felton editor
N
ext month sees the third in the biennial series of PM Asia Conferences and Exhibitions – PM Asia 2009. There will be a lot of people there and, naturally, we hope that readers of Metal Powder Report will be among them. Once again we have chosen the vibrant city of Shanghai to stage the event. It is the business centre of the most vigorous economy in Asia and also centre of Chinese powder metallurgy. So the city is the same as the previous events for all the right reasons. One of the principles upon which the PM Asia Conference and Exhibition series has been built is trade, that vital exchange between individuals,
companies, countries and cultures that accompanies the growth and spread of wealth. One small change this year is the location within Shanghai. PM Asia 2009 will be staged at the Shanghai Everbright Hotel and Exhibition Centre. But a much more significant change this time round is our greater involvement in the milieu of China. Building on our belief that co-operation is an essential for progress in any sphere where cultures meet, PM Asia 2009 will be co-located with CCE China, the major Chinese cemented carbides exhibition. Together the two exhibitions and the PM Asia 2009 Conference make an attractive package across the powder metallurgy world. There are those in the PM industry that make a difference between powder metallurgy and cemented carbides (hardmetals) on the ground that tungsten carbides are ceramics – even though tungsten is a metal. Metal Powder Report has never agreed with that point of view. PM and hardmetals are closely related powder technologies that share much in tooling and technique. In nearly every issue of the magazine we publish at least one hardmetal-related feature and as a result have built up a substantial body of published
Back at the Last Chance Saloon THE question that has to be answered
seems certain now to be When? It’s no longer If companies like General Motors can avoid some form of bankruptcy. GM blew very nearly $31 billion in 2008, Billions more will have burned in the past three months, including, of course, the more-than-$13 billion advanced by the government. Meanwhile, the company is trying to negotiate a huge rescue package from the Obama Administration, a process that involves reaching a deal with investors who have seen the value of their
3
MPR March 2009
holdings put to the sword in the past 12 months – down more than 90% to languish among the penny stocks. It is also in talks with the scapegrace leaders of the UAW, whose ruthless “dedication to their members’ interests” has contributed so much to this mess. Most people could conclude that it’s time to put an end to the circus; to arrange some form of governmentdirected bankruptcy that will eradicate the useless management and preserve the supplier base – which includes the PM supply chain.
academic work to rival some wholly dedicated Journals covering the topic. Trade and business is one aspect of PM Asia 2009, and an important one. The conference addresses the other underlying principle of the event: information exchange. With distinguished contributions from both Chinese and international engineering and academic disciplines, PM Asia 2009 restates and underscores the importance of research in driving progress forward. To that end there will be papers and discussion on high-performance PM applications in the automotive sector; developments in materials for PM structural parts; production technology development; metal injection moulding; cutting tool applications of hard materials and magnetics. A wide enough ranging menu of discussion to satisfy most tastes. But in closing, I think I should address one question that has come at us from different directions in the recent past, coloured by stories of financial turmoil (never mind scandal as light relief) and business uncertainty. Why are you continuing with this type of activity when it would be more prudent to wait for better times? Well, along with millions of others, we looked at the global situation and the way it affected China and, yes, we saw that the Chinese economy is suffering, particularly through a downturn in exports. But we also saw that the Chinese government has put in places measures aimed at supporting the automotive market –always a major PM customer. China is also a big producer of hardmetal machine tooling, one of the things that will be remarkably fast to respond to any upturn. So though times may be tough right now, there are many seeds for the future. But perhaps above all, we believe that the original underlying premise of the PM Asia Conference and Exhibition series was right: that information exchange and trade really are the way forward.
metal-powder.net