The 2026 National Industry Congress puts the spotlight on connected value chains

Bilbao became this week’s meeting point for Spain’s industrial ecosystem with the 8th National Industry Congress, held on 4–5 February at the Euskalduna Palace. Led by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism under the motto “Lo bien hecho nos define” (”Quality work defines us”), the event brought together companies, clusters, institutions and experts to address the sector’s main challenges: competitiveness, sustainability and innovation.

The Congress welcomed H.M. King Felipe VI on the opening day, when the National Industry Awards “Bien hecho en España” were also presented, underscoring industrial excellence and quality as defining hallmarks. The closing session was led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who announced a new PERTE to accelerate industrial decarbonisation, further strengthening Spain’s industrial strategy in the fight against climate change through innovation and digital transformation.

In this context, the focus on “quality work” connects directly with digital transformation, which is essential to improving industry’s productivity, competitiveness and sustainability. In the automotive sector, given the complexity of its supply chain and the high demands for quality and compliance, it is crucial to digitalise and coordinate information exchange among all stakeholders. This is precisely where Catena-X comes in: an initiative for more transparent and collaborative value chains, where sharing data in a secure and standardised way boosts efficiency, quality and compliance. From the Catena-X Competence Center, we continue to drive this vision of moving from isolated digitalisation to connected ecosystems in which  every actor contributes to and benefits from reliable information across the entire value chain.