Fluid power has successfully come through the crisis and has achieved new record sales. Accordingly, the 2021 sales growth shows plus 20 percent for hydraulics and also plus 20 percent for pneumatics compared to the previous year.
The good figures also have an impact on the 2022 forecast: A sales increase of 6 percent compared to the previous year is now forecast for hydraulics, and even 7 percent for pneumatics.
Supply bottlenecks remain a challenge for fluid power companies, especially for metals and plastics as well as chips and microelectronics. At present, the companies see little improvement in the supply situation, which at the same time leads to hesitation on the part of customers in placing orders.
To ensure that cutting-edge fluid power remains attractive to customers, the industry must be made fit for the future. Under the aegis of Christian H. Kienzle, Argo-Hytos, who stepped down as association chairman after 16 years, the course has already been set for this. Under his chairmanship, important topics and activities were initiated and implemented, particularly in the future areas of digitalization and sustainability.
At the general meeting of the fluid power association, Dr. Steffen Haack, Bosch Rexroth AG, was elected as the new chairman to succeed Christian H. Kienzle, while Christian H. Kienzle remains a member of the association's board of directors.
"A big thank you goes to Christian H. Kienzle for his many years of dedicated and successful work for the good of the industry and for the good arrangement of his succession as chairman of the trade association. With Dr. Steffen Haack and the well-connected board, our trade association continues to be excellently positioned at the top. I am very much looking forward to working with him and advancing relevant industry issues together," says Hartmut Rauen, Managing Director of the Fluid Power Association within the VDMA.
The focus under Dr. Steffen Haack will also be on the topics of digitalization, sustainability and education. "We will cooperate even more closely within the industry in the future, but also network more closely externally. This applies in particular to areas such as digitalisation, standardisation, training and sustainability," says Haack.