Spain steps it up: the country is now home to the world's fourth largest machine tool show. That fact, combined with Spain's long metalworking history

This year's Spanish machine tool show was big in many respects. Known as BIEMH, the 2004 edition of this biennial show was its largest in terms of number of attendees and exhibitors. In fact, BIEMH now ranks as the world's fourth largest machine tool show, behind EMO, IMTS and BI-MU.

Show organizers and Spain's association of machine tool manufacturers, known as AFM, have made strides to generate greater interest from the international metalworking community. It seems this effort has paid off, because this year's show drew visitors from 54 countries and featured 1,894 exhibitors from 34 countries. Of course, these numbers would not have been attainable were it not for a new, larger exhibition center. The show's new home is the Bilbao Exhibition Center (BEC), which offers 60,000 square meters of exhibition space (41 percent more than the previous venue) and a layout that features six column-free exhibition halls.