Welcome!  For those working with aluminium, a world of globalisation is not a very new experience. Products, applications and technologies are spread all over the world since decades. But in the recent years, many economies in Eastern Europe and in Asia opened themselves towards a considerable enlargement of information exchanges.Exchanging and sharing knowledge is in general one of the key success factors of the future and in the case of aluminium surfaces it’s getting increasingly crucial. In the western European countries the information flow on market and technology signals is already done by the European Association for Surface Treatments (ESTAL). Since the beginnings of ESTAL, the national associations of 16 countries being its members shared informations of common interest. This made the organisation a powerful representative of the majority of the anodisers and coaters in Europe. Today, ESTAL is the cooperating organisation of the European Commission in questions of aluminium surface treatment. As ESTAL always did, we keep open for the developments and market demands. Russia is one of the largest export nations of prime aluminium and has a huge and rapidly moving domestic market. Accordingly the demand for aluminium surfaces increases. To some extend, this tendencies can be found in nearly every country of the eastern part of Europe. Poland - as an example - has managed to coordinate the companies in a national association, which is a full member of ESTAL since 2005. Obviously there are good reasons for ESTAL to be interested in the developments of the aluminium- and aluminium surface industries in the eastern European countries. Consequently to support the ALUMINIUM COATINGS – XXI. Century 2006 in Moscow was an easy decision, as easy as for many participants. May I wish to all the participants that they will collect a lot of new experiences during the event, get fruitful contacts and create a basis for future cooperation in the sense of exchanging and sharing knowledge. Dr. Th. Becker
ESTAL - President
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