After a three-year break, Bauma, the world’s leading trade fair for construction machinery, opened in Munich on Monday. After a tour, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) was enthusiastic about the innovations at the fair. From digitally working machines to 3D printing of houses to save on skilled workers on construction sites, Bauma will show many concrete solutions. That makes him very optimistic that Germany will master the major infrastructure challenges. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said that Bauma was a signal of confidence and a “mood lifter” in the crisis.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Prime Minister Markus Söder (left) at Bauma.
(Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa)
More than 3100 exhibitors from around 60 countries show their products at the world’s leading trade fair for construction machinery, building material machines, construction vehicles and construction equipment. Exhibition boss Stefan Rummel said: “We have a small minus in terms of the number of exhibitors. But that’s also due to the fact that fewer exhibitors come from China or that we don’t have any exhibitors from Russia either.”
At the major trade fairs that took place in Munich this year, there were an average of 30 percent fewer visitors than before the corona pandemic. “That could also happen at Bauma.”
A visitor has his picture taken between the grappling hooks of a crawler excavator.
(Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa)
Big topics at the fair are the digital construction site, autonomous vehicles, alternative drives and sustainability, for example in mining. In addition to cranes from the height of the Frauenkirche, a large harbor crane can be seen, a dump truck with a load weighing 528 tons or a hydrogen-powered crawler excavator. With 614,000 square meters of exhibition space, Bauma is the largest trade fair in the world.
The construction machinery industry has not yet presented a forecast for the current year. According to the industry association VDMA, manufacturers of mining technology are benefiting from the worldwide increase in demand for raw materials.