METAV 2020 postponed in light of coronavirus fears
METAV 2020, originally set to take place from March 10–13, 2020, in Düsseldorf, Germany, has been postponed due to fears over the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19). According to the event organisers, the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW), following a speech by Germany’s Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn on an incipient epidemic in Germany, and travellers from crisis-hit regions being checked on arrival in Germany, some major exhibitors cancelled their participation in the trade fair.
Dr Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of VDW, commented on the postponement, “This is not a decision we took lightly, but the coronavirus or Covid-19 has in recent days exhibited extremely dynamic proliferation. With the high number of people infected in Italy, and its spread in North Rhine-Westphalia, directly on the METAV’s doorstep, anxieties among our exhibitors have risen steeply.”
“Since further developments are unforeseeable, we decided at once to postpone the METAV. In consultative coordination with our associate, the trade fair organiser Messe Düsseldorf, we shall be announcing the new dates as quickly as possible, so exhibitors and visitors can firm up their plans without undue delay,” he concluded.
