Till Schreiter succeeds Dr Ioannis Ioannidis, who retired from his active career at the Frech Group at the end of 2023 and thus also relinquishes the chairmanship of the specialist association.
Schreiter, a graduate engineer in electrical engineering (RWTH Aachen), has been a member of the Executive Board of the Metallurgy Association - with the specialist departments of foundry machinery, metallurgical and rolling mill equipment, as well as thermo process technology - since it was founded in 2017 and contributes his extensive expertise and experience from executive positions in metallurgical plant engineering to the management of the association's work.
Together with his colleagues from the steering committee, he is particularly keen to strengthen the framework conditions to ensure that the solutions provided by the metallurgical machinery and plant engineering industry will be able to unfold their impact on a global scale to make proven metal production and processes ever more sustainable.
"Our industry can only fully realise its potential, and in particular its comprehensive decarbonisation expertise, if the framework conditions are right for a strong foundation of innovative metallurgical machinery and plant engineering in Germany and Europe. VDMA Metallurgy offers the network and the platform to play a decisive role in shaping cross-company solutions for the central challenges of the international metals value chain."
“Sincere thanks go to Dr Ioannis Ioannidis, who has been a member of the trade association since 2004, chaired the former Foundry Machinery Association since 2013 and, since 2017, has shown great commitment in merging the three formerly separate specialist associations foundry machinery, metallurgical and rolling mill equipment and thermo process technology into one successful organisation," adds Schreiter.
VDMA Metallurgy forms the network and the joint platform of metallurgical machinery producers and – comprising the specialist departments Foundry Machinery, Metallurgical Plants and Rolling Mills, as well as Thermo Process Technology – bundles the common topics and interests of its members who supply plants, machinery, equipment, and process technology for metal production as well as metal processing. The trade association represents around 180 companies, which account for around 80 per cent of industry turnover.
The VDMA represents more than 3,600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 860 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.
