Last week the IWCC held its first Autumn Committee Week, which combined the meetings of the Copper Tube, Regulatory Affairs and Advocacy and Brass Rod Committees into three days of interesting and insightful meetings, complimented by networking dinners.

The week began with a dinner for the Copper Tube committee, held at the Restaurant van Puffelen, before a meeting covering the following topics.

  • An update from Pauline Roger, Hopscotch Europe, on the ‘Copper for Sustainable Plumbing’ campaign. Members were shown a comprehensive presentation emphasising the success of the campaign in the first 12 months across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and a timeline for the next few months of the campaign.
  • Members were then shown the latest copper tube production and demand statistics, presented by Luke Freeland, outlining production, imports, exports and demand across all major European and global markets, with breakdowns of water tube and industrial tube demand.
  • Members then heard an interesting and insightful presentation from Daan De Jong and Anya Hurd, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, on copper tube demand growth for use in cooling applications in AI datacenters.
  • Finally, members heard an update on the EU Electrification plan by Robert Pinter, ICA Europe.

The Regulatory Affairs and Advocacy Committee then met for a networking dinner at de Kop van Oost, before a meeting covering the following topics:

  • CBAM Update from Rob Van Der Meer, Cement Europe.
  • Copper Mark Update from Mike Smith, Copper Mark.
  • Discussion on Health and Safety, with an insight into the work KME Group have done over the past 10 years to instill a safety culture at their sites.
  • A presentation on circular economy by Eurometaux.

The Regulatory Affairs and Advocacy Committee saw record attendance, emphasising the importance of this group and its work to navigate EU trade legislation and compliance. If you would like to join the Regulatory Affairs and Advocacy Committee, or receive more information about the ongoing advocacy work the IWCC is doing in Europe, please email iwcc@coppercouncil.org.

 

The week concluded with the Brass Rod committee, where a dinner was held at Roest, before a meeting which covered the following topics:

  • An update on CLP, Seveso and ADR compliance.
  • An update on market statistics for production and demand of brass and alloy rod across Europe, China and USA.
  • The meeting concluded with updates on the ongoing work being done in Europe on the Drinking Water Directive from the Drinking Water Alliance and Eurometaux.

We would like to thank our members of each committee for attending the meetings and engaging in positive, productive discussions. We look forward to engaging with members again during the Spring committee meetings next year.