In accordance with the long-lasting tradition XV Congress of the Polish Chamber of Steelworks took place in Holiday Inn Hotel in Warsaw-Józefów on 10-11 October 2017. This year edition of the Congress was a direct continuation of topics discussed last year and referred to expansion of Polish construction enterprises to German and Scandinavian market. More than 130 participants took part in the event - representatives of the largest companies of steel construction industry and invited guests.
The Congress was opened by the President of the Chamber Tadeusz Rybak (the Chairman of the Board of MOSTOSTAL PUŁAWY S.A.), who announced the subject matter of the discussion. Then the floor was taken over by Bartłomiej Baudler – Member of the Chamber’s Board and Managing Director of KERSTEN EUROPE sp. z o.o., who also acted as the Moderator of the Congress. He summarised briefly actions of the Chamber undertaken to commence the programme Build with Steel - the project aiming at the dissemination of knowledge about steel constructions and increasing the use of this material by designers and contractors. The programme, in collaboration with partner companies, should start later this year. The first subject matter presentation was given by Daniel Widawski – the Director of the Technical Office of MOSTOSTAL PUŁAWY in Germany, who exhaustively discussed the topic of German-speaking European markets. The speaker put great pressure on discussing opportunities and threats for the development of companies dealing with production and assembly of steel constructions on these markets. Subsequently, perspectives of development of Polish steel industry on Scandinavian markets were discussed by Jerzy Świeca – Vice-president of MOSTOSTAL PUŁAWY and Marketing and Production Director.
Later on, a lecture was given by the special guest of the Congress – Tennce Carlsson, Member of the Board of the Swedish Institute of Steel Construction and former owner and president of the Swedish company Lecor Stalteknik AB. The presentation of Tennce Carlsson focused on market strategies and the opportunities and threats that await companies operating on the Scandinavian market. What was encouraging was the fact that the speaker emphasised good quality of services and products provided by Polish companies operating in the industry, supported by 15 years of cooperation and the conclusion that business culture in Poland, against popular opinion, did not differ that much from the culture in Sweden.
This claim was contradicted by the lecture of Dr Irena Kamińska – Radomska, who emphasized that cultural differences are commonplace and sometimes, although seemingly insignificant, they are important in business. Negotiating abroad, we need to remember about other meaning of some gestures, behaviours, or body language.
Another presentation, on effective solutions in the field of risk management and export insurance was delivered by representatives of broker company MARSH sp. z o.o. – Robert Michalski and Tomasz Rychlewski.
The first part of the PIKS Congress was closed by the presentation of Bartłomiej Baudler, who presented the portal www.polishsteelwork.com – an innovative tool of web-based Polish steel market export promotion. The presentation was supplemented by Krzysztof Ostrowski – President of the Management Board of MTA Engineering sp. z o.o. who referred to technical issues related to running the portal.
After a brief coffee break, two panel discussions took place – the first one was devoted to the German market and the participants were:
- Zbigniew Barłóg – Chairman of the Board of METALBARK sp. z o.o. sp. k.,
- Robert Staszczyszyn – Vice President of the Management Board of ŚFUP sp. z o.o.,
- Jan Jaszczyński – Chairman of the Board of JAKOSTA Biuro Inżynierskie,
- Stanisław Sroka – Chairman of the Board TRANSSYSTEM S.A. sp. k.,
- Daniel Widawski – MOSTOSTAL PUŁAWY S.A.
The second panel dealt with the Scandinavian market, and the speakers were:
- Tennce Carlsson – The Swedish Institute of Steel Construction
- Jerzy Kosior – Director of JOTUN POLSKA sp. z o.o.,
- Józef Popławski – Chairman of the Board of MOSTOSTAL POMORZE S.A.,
- Jerzy Świeca – Vice Chairman of the Board of MOSTOSTAL PUŁAWY S.A.,
- Marcin Olczak – MARSH sp. z o.o.
The closing presentation of the official part of the Congress was the speech of Professor Dariusz Rosati – an economist, politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1995-1997, a Member of the Polish Parliament and a Member of the European Parliament, who discussed Poland’s entry into the euro zone.
