Dr. Jürgen M. Geißinger, Schaeffler Group President and CEO, was elected new president of the World Bearing Association (WBA) at the organization’s fourth annual meeting in Tokyo. WBA was established as an umbrella organization of the American Bearing Manufacturers’ Association (ABMA), the Japan Bearing Industrial Association (JBIA) and the European Bearing Manufacturers’ Association (FEBMA) in September 2006. It represents the leading global bearing companies with sales of approximately €20 billion, which is about 75 percent of the rolling bearing market worldwide.
WBA objectives include the elimination of competition distorting trade restraints as well as the introduction of uniform environmental protection standards. Special focus is on the fight against product piracy. “Counterfeiting earns large sums of money and causes immense economic damage,” explained Dr. Geißinger. The bearing industry too is not immune to this and reports losses of several hundreds of millions of euros. But beyond this economic damage, counterfeit bearings are a considerable safety risk for consumers.
