A breakthrough moment for reman

Rematec Asia… Just saying the words has a certain thrill to it. Only a couple of months ago, the international remanufacturing community descended on Amsterdam for the 10th edition of Rematec. Now, Guangzhou will be the host for the first Rematec show in China. It promises to be an insightful look at the challenges and opportunities of operating in this vast market.

Back in Europe, Rematec 2019 was packed full of interest. One clear theme this year was the increasing visibility of original equipment manufacturers in reman. We’ve always known about this, of course – but now they are openly talking about reman. It feels like a breakthrough moment: the keynote speech by Dick Cruslock, reman boss at Volvo Cars, was the first time an OEM executive had presented at Rematec. No wonder the session was so well attended, with a stream of intelligent – and occasionally provocative - questions from the audience, all answered with honest courtesy. Rematec’s OEM-Reman Network – making its debut at Rematec – also provided a conduit between the two groups behind closed doors. It is a theme that Rematec News will return to frequently over the coming months.

In yet another first, the European Remanufacturing Council held its annual meeting at Rematec. Its opening address was given by Janez Potocnik, co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel.

Among a number of mind-boggling statistics, he pointed out that China used more cement in the years 2011-13 than the US did in the entire 20th century. It is a country moving at a rapid rate. Finally, you may notice that the Rematec logo has been refreshed – remanufactured, you might say - to highlight our close relationship to the circular economy. In part this reflects the key role remanufacturing will play as the need to conserve the earth’s finite resources becomes widely understood. Recycling, as Potocnik points out, is the ‘worst of the good’. By the time you recycle, the material is lost. The damage is already done. Policy makers from Brussels to Beijing already get it: momentum is building behind the environmental and economic sense of reman.