Asturias promotes its advantages and opportunities as an investment destination at Hannover Messe 2019

The Government of Asturias has completed its participation in Hannover Messe this week, the largest Industry Fair in the world. The Government of the Principality of Asturias participated in the event with an institutional stand, where it presented its advanced manufacturing capacities and the advantages of the Asturias Digital Innovation Hub, a tool promoted by the Government to facilitate the digitalisation of companies.

Among the activities undertaken, was the particularly noteworthy visit to the stand by the Ambassador of Spain in Germany, Ricardo Martínez Vázquez, who toured the pavilion accompanied by the Economic and Trade Advisor of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, Lucinio Muñoz, and who discovered the strengths of Asturian Industry 4.0 via the IDONIAL Design and Manufacturing Centre and the CTIC Technology Centre, and the offer of digital enablers.

The CTIC Business and Operations director, Pablo Coca, showed the diplomat how an industrial plant can be controlled from the CTIC headquarters in Asturias, some 1,950 kilometres away, using the Internet and communication technologies. In turn, IDONIAL, the new technological centre created from the merger between ITMA Materials Technology and Prodintec, demonstrated an aero-transportable factory held in a 3D printing laboratory, designed in collaboration with the European Defence Agency, with which this entity aims to test the impact of this technology in military operations in conflict zones.

The meetings held between the directors of Industry and Telecommunications, Manuel Monterrey; from Idepa, Eva Pando, and from Asturex, Teresa Vigón, had the two-fold objective of presenting the Asturias Digital Innovation Hub and introducing the Principality of Asturias as an attractive region for recruiting and setting up new business projects. In this respect, a particularly interesting meeting took place with the CEO of the Phoenix Contact Group.

The activity of the Asturian clusters linked to the innovation hub – Clúster TIC and MetaIndustry4 – proved essential when participating in an international meeting with similar organisations from Canada and Europe. Furthermore, institutional representatives from the Principality visited the Asturian company exhibitors at Hannover Messe: Oxiplant and JP Industrias Mecánicas.

In parallel to these activities, as a member of the Enterprise Europe Network, Idepa participated in Technology Cooperation Day, an event celebrated within the framework of the fair to look for international partners, and where the six participating entities (companies, clusters and technology centres) established over 60 international contacts.

 

The relevance of the previous edition of Hannover Messe enabled 5,000 exhibitors to present their proposals to over 200,000 visitors, bringing the real and virtual worlds together with new solutions for smart manufacturing.

30 4月, 2019 /  

2018 saw Arcelor invest 26 million euros in R&D in Asturias

Oviedo, 5th April 2019 – Nicolás de Abajo, the global leader of the ArcelorMittal R&D Centres around the world, and José Manuel Arias, president of ArcelorMittal in Spain, met today with Javier Fernández, president of the Principality of Asturias Government, to follow up the collaboration between the Government of the Community and the Company in the field of research, development and innovation.

 

The meeting follows the recent signing of a new framework agreement of collaboration between the two entities for the 2019-2022 period. The collaboration over these coming years between the Government and the company incorporates new changes to previous alliances, with the signing of an agreement between the Regional Promotion Society of the Principality of Asturias, the European Business and Innovation Centre, and ArcelorMittal, for the creation and development of technology-based companies linked to the activities carried out in the Company’s two Global R&D Centres located in Asturias, framed within a co-investment approach.

 

Over the past ten years, the Global R&D staff base in Asturias has grown from little more than 20 researchers and technicians to over 300, who now work between the two Centres. Since the signing of the previous agreement with the Regional Government in 2014, ArcelorMittal’s investment in R&D in Asturias has multiplied fivefold, expanding from 7 million euros in 2015 to reach 26 million euros in 2018. To this figure a further 15 million euros have been poured into creating laboratories and pilot plants designed exclusively for R&D. In 2019, the Company plans to continue its evolution in R&D research in Asturias within its global R&D structure. In the Asturian centres this drive is closely linked to improving productive processes, new products, the circular economy and to emerging “mega-trending technologies” such as 3D printing, nano-materials, Digitalisation or Industry 4.0.

Nicolás de Abajo commented: “Our aim with this new agreement is to continue to explore mega-trending technologies, the industrialisation of innovative solutions that are being developed in the Global R&D centres based in Asturias, and the creation of new opportunities for economic activity in the region, contributing to the evolution of the productive fabric: we hope to be able to revise it upwards in terms of prospects, investment and the creation of employment year after year”.

 

In turn, José Manual Arias thanked the firm support from the Regional Government: “The successive collaboration agreements signed between our company and the Principality of Asturias Government have significantly contributed to the exponential growth of research and innovation activities developed by the two Asturian-based Centres. The talent developed by the team of researchers has transformed our company into a global leader in diverse fields, such as excellence in research linked to the rail industry, Industry 4.0, the efficient use of water and other natural resources, gas recovery, and research into the use of new materials. We would like to thank the Principality of Asturias Government for placing its trust in ArcelorMittal, demonstrated with the successive collaboration agreements signed”.

30 4月, 2019 /  

3D Technologies: ArcelorMittal Spain and the Austrian company Frankstahl Technology come together in Asturias to form Thesteelprinters, designing, manufacturing and commercialising replacement steel pieces for industrial equipment based on 3D technologies.

After researching additive manufacturing at its global R&D centre in Aviles, ArcelorMittal Spain has forged a business alliance with the technology division of the Austrian multinational Frankstahl group. This partnership has led to the creation of a new company called Thesteelprinters, specialising in the design, manufacture and commercialisation of 3D printed steel pieces.

This company was constituted to meet the need detected by ArcelorMittal to shift laboratory-based research to the industrial manufacture of pieces based on 3D technologies. To do this, they have relied on Frankstahl Technology, a company present in 10 European countries and outstanding for its high levels of innovation within the industrial sector.

Thesteelprinter’s production centre is located in Aviles, in the Principality of Asturias Business Park (PEPA), where ArcelorMittal Spain has its headquarters. Here, the company has already begun to design and manufacture steel pieces, such as air nozzles and water diffusers, used by the Indian multinational in its machinery and production processes.

Thesteelprinters was founded in September 2018 with a capital of 2 million euros. This company will not just supply ArcelorMittal, as it also aims to market its 3D printed pieces to different industrial companies that carry out their activity in the metallurgy, steel making and mining sectors.

The presence of this new company gives our region a new drive in industrial innovation, setting an example of business confidence from foreign multinationals and adding yet another piece to the Asturian Steel Innovation Cluster.

 

Source: La Nueva España

6 11月, 2018 /  

Foreigners prefer to invest in Asturias

In 2014, the region of Asturias was positioned as the fifth most invested autonomous community in Spain in terms of foreign capital investment volume, behind Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia and the Basque Country. ilustracion-inversion_EN

On a national level, Asturias is one of the top ten autonomous communities in terms of foreign capital, which according to information from the 2014 Foreign Investment Registry, makes if the fifth most attractive autonomous community for foreign investors.

Over the course of last year, Asturias attracted 487,173.44 million euros of foreign capital, almost six times more than the 62,737.35 million registered in 2012. In 2014 the region captured 2.54% of all foreign investment entering Spain, a figure that positions Asturias as the fifth most successful autonomous community in attracting foreign capital, coming behind Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia and the Basque Country.

Even back in 2013 Asturias was starting to reveal its potential. In fact, according to information from the Foreign Investment Registry, Asturias already featured in eighth position in terms of direct foreign investment stock in Spain, i.e., tangible fixed assets (land, buildings, assembly lines, machinery, etc.). The value of these assets reached a total of 4,302 million euros, 100 million more than in 2012.

These figures have a significant and positive repercussion on the employment market. According to information from the National Statistics Institute (INE) and the Foreign Investment Registry, in 2013 companies with foreign capital employed 25,042 people, the equivalent of 2.2% of employment generated by foreign investment across Spain. In 2013, this figure represented 7% of all employment in Asturias.

29 12月, 2015 /