50 years of EMO – a success story
Continuous development into the world’s leading trade fair for production technology
On August 1, 2024, the mailing of registration documents all around the world for EMO Hannover 2025 marked the start of a very special event. The world’s leading trade fair for production technology, which takes place from September 22 to 26, is celebrating an important anniversary. “For half a century, EMO has been bringing the right people together, in the right place and at the right time,” emphasizes Carl Martin Welcker, EMO General Commissioner. “It’s the most important event of 2025 for the international metalworking community.”
Under the motto Innovate manufacturing, the trade fair covers the entire value chain of this industry. This includes machine tools, manufacturing systems, precision tools, automated material flow, computer technology, industrial electronics and accessories. “As the most important interface between industry and production technology, EMO stands for innovation, internationality, inspiration and the future of metalworking,” explains Dr. Markus Heering, Executive Director of EMO organizer VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association). EMO is a world leader in providing impetus for new products, manufacturing solutions and services. Market leaders from 45 countries exhibited in 2023, and trade visitors came from around 140 countries. The world’s leading trade fair also stands for inspiration, as it reflects the international range of manufacturing technology like no other trade fair venue and focuses on its major trends. In this respect, it also points the way to the future of industrial production.
General Commissioner General Welcker, who has been campaigning for this huge event since 2012, is convinced, “EMO was, is and will remain THE industry platform for inspiring customers, expanding your own network and, of course, doing business.” The trade fair already had this aspiration 50 years ago, when it was launched by the European umbrella organization for the machine tool industry, Cecimo, in a difficult economic phase with the substantial involvement of the VDW.
EMO launches in 1975 in difficult economic times
The global economy had lost momentum in the 1970s due to structural upheavals. High inflation, high interest rates and rising unemployment figures led to a distinct depression and stagflation, i.e. a lack of growth or low growth combined with steep price rises. Individual sectors of the economy were hoping for a recovery through innovation and the associated increase in the investment ratio. However, the machine tool industry, which then as now was synonymous with sophisticated capital goods and was best able to meet these demands, was – like most areas of mechanical engineering – in a tight situation.
Despite this critical situation, the European and national industry associations stood by their decision taken quite some time ago to launch the first round of EMO exhibitions. In 1975, the year in which the Vietnam War ended and the CSCE agreement was adopted, the first EMO was launched in Paris. In addition to the predominantly Western European exhibitors, 114 manufacturers from Eastern Europe and other parts of the world were represented.
Exhibitors from other continents for the first time
What was special about the new trade fair were the new exhibitors from other continents. This was preceded by an intensive and lengthy discussion about opening up the EEMO, the “Exposition Européenne de Machines-Outils” (the Machine Tool World Exposition), to the rest of the world – an event which had been organized since 1951 with purely European participation. At that time, the VDW vehemently advocated further internationalization of the trade fair and finally agreed with Cecimo to also admit exhibitors from other parts of the world. This was followed by the renaming and launch of the trade fair as the “Exposition Mondiale de la Machine-Outil” (the World Exhibition for Machine Tools, or EMO for short).
The choice of venue was also discussed beforehand. While the original sequence was “Paris – Hanover – Milan – Hanover” every two years, EMO has been held with the cycle of “Hanover – Hanover – Milan” since 2005. EMO celebrated its debut in Germany in 1977. While almost 1400 exhibitors from all over the world were spread across 94,000 square meters of net exhibition space at the first trade fair two years earlier, the second event in Hanover saw a good 1600 exhibitors exhibiting across a net exhibition space of almost 117,000 square meters.
This was accompanied by increasing internationalization. Exhibitors from 27 nations, mainly from the USA and Japan as well as emerging markets, presented their innovations alongside Eastern and Western European countries. “What is being shown here in Hanover by the companies of the 13 countries that are now members of the European Committee – as well as by five Eastern European countries, companies from America and this time increasingly by countries in Asia and the Middle East – is virtually the world’s machine tool industry,” emphasized Markus von Busse, then EMO General Commissioner, at the opening of the first EMO to be held in Germany. He also emphasized, “they don’t just supply machine tools, but are increasingly supplying solutions to problems – complete systems.”
Continuous growth in subsequent years
This trend continued to consolidate. Four years after the first EMO in Hanover, the trade fair once again attracted a record number of visitors. By 1981, there were already 1845 exhibitors occupying more than 140,000 square meters with their stands. This included 234 companies from 21 countries outside Western Europe. There was hardly a country that lacked relevant approaches for manufacturing metalworking machinery. Another four years later, EMO 1985 in Hanover grew further to an exhibition space of around 160,000 square meters. About half of the space was taken by companies from Germany..
The positive development of the world’s most important trade fair for production technology continues to this day. At the last EMO 2023 in Hanover, around 1850 exhibitors showcased their products in 15 halls across 235,000 square meters. Around 70 percent of the companies came from 45 different countries, including China, Italy, Switzerland and Japan. Moreover, about a third of the approximately 92,000 trade visitors came from Asia. After a four-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the trade fair offered them the chance to see top-class technical innovations. “We’ve seen everything here that will make up the future of production – new solutions for automation, for networking in factories and for sustainability in production,” summed up EMO Commissioner General Welcker at the end of the trade fair. He added that, despite the tense economic situation, the mood was good.
Confidence for the anniversary trade fair in 2025
This is also the goal for EMO 2025, which will have been providing the right answers to all questions relating to production technology for 50 years. The focus will be on automation, sustainability and digitalization. Welcker is certain, “participation in EMO is a must for all key players in the metalworking industry because this is where the who’s who of the industry will be exhibiting.” In this respect, the world’s leading trade fair is the place to be, as no other trade fair in the world brings together so many manufacturing experts on the manufacturer and user sides in one place.
