The 1st Assofermet Day & SteelOrbis Conference was held with great success on Friday, November 15, at Villa Fenaroli Palace Hotel in Rezzato in Brescia in northern Italy. The conference, organized by Assofermet (Italian association of traders of iron, steel, non-ferrous metals, ferrous scrap, hardware and similar goods) and SteelOrbis, was attended by prominent local and international operators in steel-related sectors. In the morning, there were closed meetings for the various Assofermet product segments, as well as two open debates: the Assofermet Scrap division discussed the shortage of scrap in the Italian steel industry, under the coordination of Assofermet president Romano Pezzotti and with the participation of Cesare Pasini (Feralpi Siderurgica Spa), while the Assofermet Non-Ferrous Scrap division held a debate attended by Mario Bertoli, president of Assomet (Italian national association of non-ferrous metal industries), and Nicola Cantele of Eredi Gnutti Metalli Spa, among others.
In the afternoon, Luca Veronesi, general manager of SteelOrbis Italy, and Roberto Lunardi, president of Assofermet, gave introductory speeches on the theme of the economic sustainability of the European steel industry. Joachim Schroeder, CEO of Research and Consulting Group, Serdar Kilimci, sales manager of Turkish steelmaker Çolakoğlu, Patrick C. P. Tuen, president of Shanghai Steel Trading International Chamber of Commerce, and Burçak Odabaşı, director of SteelOrbis, all made presentations. After the afternoon coffee break, there was a round table discussion with the participation of Antonio Gozzi, president of Italian steelmakers association Federacciai, Tommaso Sandrini, vice president of Assofermet, and Ugo Miretti of the European Commission. The debate was coordinated by Giulio Sapelli, economist and professor of economic history at the State University of Milan.
The 1st Assofermet Day & Conference SteelOrbis included the attendance of a total of 211 registered and 202 accredited participants, with 150 participants at the meetings held in the morning and 167 in the afternoon.