About APGGA

It has been 30 years since APGGA and APGGC were established in 1992. It is a great honor to have the opportunity to gather hot-dip galvanizing associations from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region to establish APGGA. Since the first conference was held in Taiwan in 1992, the conference has been successfully held in various countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This year it is the turn for Japan to hold the 12th conference.

I am often asked about the origin of the Asia Pacific General Galvanizing Association. I would like to take this opportunity to report how APGGA and APGGC were established.

In 1985, I accepted the invitation of the Galvanizers Association Australia for the first time to attend the International Galvanizing Conference held in Munich, Germany with them. I was very surprised when I participated to see Europeans paid so much attention to the promotion of steel protection. It is regarded as a knowledge.

Attendees gathered together to discuss whether there was a better corrosion resistance method, an energy-saving combustion system, and a more durable method for hot-dip galvanizing, hot-dip galvanized pots, how to apply computers to business operations, because computers were just beginning to be adopted by enterprises at that time, and how to pay attention to environmental protection issues.

Therefore, I thought that the high temperature and high humidity environment in the Asia-Pacific region is the environment where steel corrosion is most likely to occur, but most countries in the Asia-Pacific region had ignored it. Except for Japan and Australia, other countries in the Asia-Pacific region had not made great efforts to promote hot- dip galvanizing, so I asked Mr. Tadao Tanaka, then chairman of the Japan Galvanizers Association Inc, whether to form an association in the Asia-Pacific region and hold a conference every four years like Europe. In addition to the Asia-Pacific region, countries around the world should also participate. I also discussed this topic with people from the Galvanizers Association Australia, and they also very much agreed with me.

After several negotiations and preparatory meetings in Taiwan, APGGA was established. The conference was held in Taiwan, and each country paid US$10,000. The first APGGC conference was also held in Taiwan in 1992.

Here with I would like to mention that at that time some people believed that Japan was relatively advanced, and the first session should be held in Japan. I am very grateful to Chairman Tanaka, who alone said to everyone, "We have participated so many times in Europe over the past few years. He never thought of organizing the APGGA”. Mr Hsiao mentioned that APGGA should be established in the Asia-Pacific region after he participated it only once. Moreover, “Taiwan has just started to develop hot-dip galvanizing, so we should support Taiwan and hold the first conference in Taiwan.” Here I would like to thank Chairman Tanaka in particular.

So, in 1992 a conference was held at the National Central Library of Taiwan, and 25 papers were published. There were more than 200 participants, of which nearly 100 from Japan came to Taiwan to participate in the event. Thanks again to our Japanese friends for their support of Taiwan. Afterwards, the second conference was held in Japan, and the third conference was held in Australia. It has been recognized by everyone, and it has been continuing to this day, the 12th APGGC was successfully held.

Our industry, everyone thinks it is a 3K industry, but I always think that with the advancement of science and materials, I always hope to get rid of the shadow of 3K. I hope to become have more automatic production, using intelligent manufacturing and energy saving to reduce emissions and focusing on environmental issues in the production process. Some do it, but some don't. So, we still have a lot of room to improve. I hope that everyone here will work together.

I don't think this industry will be depressed unless steel is not used, especially in many advanced countries in the world. We have entered into an aging society, and the declining birth rate and lack of maintenance manpower are the future trends. Reducing public maintenance and even it is maintenance-free to save the government money and avoid debts from our children and grandchildren.

Let’s take the construction of a steel bridge as an example. If the concept of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is not considered in the early stage of construction, the maintenance cost in the future will be more than the original construction cost, and it will also involve more social costs. Therefore, we in Taiwan now are making great efforts advocating the concept of having a LCC policy which has recently been recognized by the government and has gradually gained attention.

I propose it here for your reference.

Thank you again for your enthusiastic participation, and hope that APGGC will continue, and everyone will continue to work hard for the development of the hot-dip galvanizing industry, so that hot-dip galvanizing can be more prosperous.

When we are united and work together, APGGC will be stronger! Thank you!

Robert Hsiao

April 2023