Metav was originally scheduled to take place in Düsseldorf from March 10 to 13, but those responsible at VDW decided to postpone the trade fair due to the coronavirus SARS CoV-2. The new date has now been announced: March 23 to 26, 2021, which means that Metav will take place just three weeks after the Intec / Z trade fair double (March 2 to 5, 2021) in Leipzig.

"We are very pleased that we were able to set a new date so quickly together with our partner, Messe Düsseldorf," says Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Managing Director of Metav organizer VDW. The aim was to give exhibitors planning security. "That was not so easy because the entire trade fair calendar had to be reorganized due to the many trade fair cancellations and postponements," says Schäfer. We can optimistically assume that the coronavirus issue will be resolved by the beginning of 2021. There is also a well-founded expectation that the economy will improve again at the beginning of next year. The mechanical engineering sector, for example, as one of the most important customer industries for the machine tool industry, is assuming a strong recovery in demand once the coronavirus crisis has been overcome.

"All contracts with the approximately 460 Metav exhibitors will remain valid for the new date," confirms VDW Executive Director Schäfer. In 2021, Metav will be the most important trade fair for metalworking in the first half of the year and will set the pace for investment decisions, especially in the German market and Benelux. Franz-Xaver Bernhard, Managing Director of long-standing Metav exhibitor Hermle AG in Gosheim, also expects this. "We expect that the economic situation will have improved significantly in a year's time and that Metav in March 2021 will be a good platform for meeting the recovery in demand." And Hans-Jürgen Büchner, Managing Director at Iscar Germany GmbH in Ettlingen, says: "We will also be at Metav in 2021, because after the economic downturn this year, we will use this proven platform to present ourselves to customers and boost business again."