Dr. Timo Würz, the Managing Director of the VDMA Foundry Machinery Association and Ines Polak, who is in charge of market information, statistics, marketing and exhibitions for the same association, visited South Africa in March 2016. While in the country they hosted a business breakfast for the South African foundry industry at Emperors Palace, Gauteng, which was organised in conjunction with the Southern African German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the South African Institute of Foundrymen.

The challenges that foundries are facing today, e.g. in efficiency improvement, in resource conservation and in overall productivity enhancements, are the drivers of innovations in machinery development. German foundry machinery manufacturers see themselves as suppliers of enabling technologies and for them the understanding of their customers’ needs, partnership and cooperation are key to successful and sustainable foundry strategies.

Jens Müller-Späth (G-U-T), Harmut Polzin (Freiberg University), Timo Würz (VDMA), Ines Polak (VDMA) and John Davies (SAIF)

The breakfast, attended by 50 delegates, were given an overview of the German foundry industry as well as an insight into world foundry trends and figures by the representatives of the VDMA.

The VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen und Anlagenbau, German Engineering Association) represents over 3 100 mostly medium-sized companies in the capital goods industry, making it the largest industry association in Europe.

The Foundry Machinery division within VDMA is the competent partner for approximately 50 manufacturers representing more than 80% of the turnover of the sector in Germany.