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Bernie’s Blog: Day 2 at the Int’l No-Dig Show in Singapore

Bernie’s Blog: Day 2 at the Int’l No-Dig Show in Singapore

By Andrew Farr November 9, 2010

(Trenchless Technology publisher Bernie Krzys is filing daily blog reports from the 2010 International No-Dig Show in Singapore)

Greetings again from Singapore! It’s Day 2 at the 2010 International No-Dig Show and there are a lot of things for me to report to you. The show started off Monday after a brief opening ceremony at which Dr Sam Ariaratnam (Arizona State University) took over the chairmanship of ISTT from outgoing chairman Dec Downey. Sam had been the vice chairman. The new ISTT vice chairman is Derek Choi of the China Hong Kong Society for Trenchless Technology. The keynote speaker, Khoo Teng Chye, Chief Executive Singapore Public Utility Board (PUB) — he did a great job briefly describing PUB’s trenchless water work.

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It’s looking like the show attendees could reach 700 to 800 attendees. Like all No-Dig shows, the morning traffic on the exhibit hall floor was busy, then slowed as people went off to listen to paper presentations and then picked up again near the end of the day. The German Society has a pavilion, as it often does to support the International No-Dig. Robert Stein of Stein & Partners, Germany, and I visited and talked about the new e-learning initiative they are launching. Borje Persson, BKP Berolina Polyester, who I had not seen for some time, talked about BKP’s UV light curing CIPP system and the market development work he and his company are doing in the Far East. I also had a nice visit with Sergio Palazzo, Paulo Dequench, and Liberal Ramos of the Brazilian Society for Trenchless Technology about their International No-Dig to be held in San Paulo, Brazil, Nov. 12-14, 2012. The 2011 International No-Dig Show will be in Berlin, May 2-5.

Insituform general manager in Singapore Scot Pearson has now been in Singapore three years. He described the China market as very difficult for rehab work vs. new construction. There is a lot of talk here about China and its huge market, but with gigantic pollution issues. American Augers’ Keith Crossen, has made numerous trips to China and commented that Chinese contractors are still quite interested in buying U.S.-made HDD rigs, despite the fact there are now numerous Chinese-built rigs on the market.

I was surprised to see Jack Gabrielse, formerly InterCon Construction president, now working as a consultant for Ditch Witch. I had a nice lunch visit with Vermeer CEO Mary Angringa and her husband Dale, talking about market conditions. Just like so many of us, they are cautious about 2011 and concerned about health care costs for their employees under the new health care changes. Friedhelm Albrecht, who I met years ago when I hitched a ride with him to a show in Hamburg, has a booth in the German Pavilion. He has a new pipe bursting system for which he is looking for dealers in North America.

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I closed out the day visiting the highly regarded Singapore Night Safari near the zoo. My wife Phyllis and I went along with NASTT executive director Mike Willmets and his wife Widdy, as well as Piero Salvo (Genivar and NASTT) and Jason Lueke (Arizona State University). And of course we stopped by the lobby bar of the Pan Pacific Hotel to have a beer, and Ben Cote of Sanexen joined us.

Tuesday at the International No-Dig Show there are more interesting papers, the exhibit hall will be open and the Gala Banquet tops off the evening — so it should be a busy day!

**Be sure to check back for Bernie’s daily blog entries either via the news link or under the TT Blog header at the top of www.trenchlesstechnology.com

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