The 2014 edition of Automechanika Shanghai – the world’s second largest Automechanika brand show – has yet again broken records for exhibitor and visitor attendance, making it the largest ever. Held from 9 – 12 December 2014 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in China, this year’s show boasted a phenomenal nine percent increase in visitors and six percent increase in exhibitors.
A breakdown of the record-breaking figures for Automechanika Shanghai 2014 are as follows:
• 4,906 exhibitors from 39 countries and regions attended representing a six percent increase on 2013.
• 89,111 visitors from 143 countries and regions attended representing a 9 percent increase on 2013. The top ten overseas visiting countries and regions were, in order of highest attendance first: Taiwan, Korea, Russia, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, the USA, India, Japan and Thailand.
• 220,000 sqm of exhibition space was required covering all the venue’s entire 17 halls plus 10 temporary halls representing a five percent increase on 2013.
The tenth edition of Automechanika Shanghai was honoured to have the presence of Mr Peter Feldmann, Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Messe Frankfurt. He visited the show for the first time this year and was impressed by the strong development of the show and the high level of exhibitor satisfaction. He commented: “Automechanika Shanghai is a professional platform for local and international companies wanting to make the most of the buoyant Chinese market and to expand their business internationally. Three main elements have consistently been a cornerstone to its success: the region’s ever-growing automotive industry, Messe Frankfurt’s global network and professionalism, and the enormous resources provided by our partner and supporting organisations.”
Attendees praise promotion, education and international offering, highlighting diversity of show After many years of development and dedication to the industry, Automechanika Shanghai has built up its international reputation as a major industry platform. Supporters from a number of key industry players, government and professional organisations are evidence of this. The show serves the whole industry chain of OE and aftermarket for the three major industry sectors: Parts & Components, Repair & Maintenance and Accessories & Tuning in terms of cultivating business relationships, marketing, brand building, networking, industry information exchange and education purposes.
As a result, the show draws a strong presence from prestigious industry associations and a number of brand names who want to benefit from this effective platform. Over the years, strong and continued support has been received from the China Aftermarket Forum (CAF), and its members including BorgWarner, Bosch, Continental Automotive, ContiTech, Hella, Mahle, Motor Service, Schaeffler, Tenneco, TRW, Valeo and ZF were present. Other high profile individual brands included BAIC, BASF, Beissbarth, Botny, Brembo, Chery, China Changan, Exedy, FAW, Hitachi, Launch, Liqui Moly, Liuzhou Wuling, MAHA, Qingte Group, Sonax, Stanley and WANXIANG.
This year, figures show that Automechanika Shanghai has once again gained a significant growth in the number of overseas exhibitors, exhibiting countries and the area of overseas pavilions, which further confirms its influential position in the international market for the industry of automotive parts, accessories, equipment and services. The show welcomed 17 overseas pavilions – including debut ones from Argentina and Pakistan – with the support of various associations and organisations, highlighting the strong international presence at Automechanika Shanghai. The Argentine pavilion was organised by the Consulate General of the Argentine Republic in Shanghai, and Mr Pedro E. Marotta, Chief of Commercial Section, Deputy Consul General spoke of the importance of the show’s multi-functional attributes to his clients. He said: “This is an important fair so you have no option but to be here. There are lots of buyers here, not just from China but Southeast Asia and South America too, such as Chile and Brazil. The companies we have this year are happy, and one of these companies found about eight ideas for solving a problem they had in just one hour of looking around the fair, so you can learn a lot about the industry here.”
Exedy is a global manufacturer for high quality clutches and torque converters from Japan and was an exhibitor in the Parts & Components sector at the show. As a newcomer to the show, the company was satisfied with the marketing efficiency and brand building that was gained through participating in Automechanika Shanghai. “We hope to increase our brand awareness and market share of aftersale service, and also let more consumers know about our technologies” praised Mr Taro Yamane, the company’s CSR-Public Relations Department Supervisor. He continued: “What surprised us during this exhibition is that apart from many Chinese clients, we have also had many foreign customers coming. It helps us a lot in advertising our brand not only to China, but also to the whole world.”
Mr Ren Shoulong, Sales Representative from Chinese company Yantai Sanzhong Technology Development Co Ltd was a returning exhibitor from Repair & Maintenance section. With a 20-year history, the company is one of the leading manufacturers for designing and producing collision repair systems. He praised Automechanika Shanghai for being a professional platform offering business opportunities, extensive market coverage, information exchange and networking. He commented: “Many of our overseas customers have come here which is why we exhibit here. We met both existing and new customers including from Egypt, Vietnam, the USA and Russia. Those that we have met with are the relevant industry people, are knowledgeable and have purchasing authority. The show not only helps us to increase brand reputation and meet overseas and local distributors, but also to network with other industry players and keep up to date with new market information.”
Mr Ferdinando Moro, Sales Director for Ravaglioli S.p.A, who also exhibited from the Repair & Maintenance sector spoke of the benefits of the research and education of the show. Representing RAV at the show for the second time, he commented: “We have not only considerably expanded our exhibition space compared to last year, we have also arranged professional technicians for live demonstrations and to answer enquiries from buyers. We hope to make use of this efficient platform to get more industry information and to enable more Chinese customers to get to know us.”
A number of exhibitors at the Accessories & Tuning sector were satisfied with the highly qualified leads that they generated at the show – an important element of new customer acquisition, including China Du-Hope International Group, the exclusive agent of Liqui Moly and a renowned global supplier of engine and gear oils, oil and fuel additives as well as auto care products, and German company Bizol, a reputable manufacturer of motor oils and lubricants. Mr Marcello Assandri, Chief Marketing Officer of Bizol noted the vast array of countries from which visitors had travelled to attend the show and launched new products at the show by taking advantage of its influence, commenting: “We want to acquire more Chinese contacts: business to business. Also, we met many of our international distributors here, for example, from the USA, Korea, Palestine as well as some countries from South America.”
Visitors hail show as an important all-round platform for global buyers and specialists
Automechanika Shanghai is highly regarded among exhibitors and visitors alike as being one of the key and influential platforms for both Chinese and global business deals in the automotive sector, as well as for its abilities to aid companies and visitors with networking, knowledge and market intelligence acquirement. This year’s show strengthened its effort in inviting local and overseas buyers and professional visitors groups from different potential markets. A Nepalese visitor group was one of the invited groups and they visited the show for the first time. Mr Binod Malla for Hilltop Exhibition Pvt Ltd brought the spare parts dealers from Nepal to the show, commenting: “Our buyers are very happy with the fair. We haven’t seen everything yet, but they’ve already found lots of new products they might import to Nepal. Also, a few of them have placed orders and made new contacts. This fair is convenient for us and we plan to come next year too.”
Aiming to provide buyers an enjoyable sourcing experience, the show has also introduced the brand new Premium Buyers Club which is an exclusive programme for high quality buyers at senior management level, or those who hold full purchasing authority within the industry. Mr David Xie, Strategic Buyer for Gentherm Automotive Systems (China) Ltd, a leading innovative producer in designing and engineering new thermal comfort technologies for automotive use, and whose company’s annual purchasing amount reached more than RMB 50 million, was one of the members of this prestigious club. He praised Automechanika Shanghai for the business opportunities it provides, saying: “I’ve met a number of suppliers and I am satisfied with their quality, as their factory attributes meet our requirements. Most of them will become my potential suppliers. The show is successful as it helps drive the whole automotive industry.”
Visitors from overseas also felt this year’s show continued to provide an excellent breadth and quality of suppliers, making it a worthwhile trip. Mr Bernard Schwartz, Export Sales, ISA GmbH from Switzerland said: “I’ve got a lot of good distributor contacts here and have met quite a few companies from China and throughout Asia. The Chinese market is building up and there are a lot of opportunities here. There will be more and more potential as people’s attitudes to distribution networks here continues to get better.”
Greek visitor, Ms Sevi Kopelou from Group Radiator agreed, commenting: “I have visited many trade fairs and Automechanika Shanghai is the most important because it has a complete range of products and you can find everything here. I am looking for radiators, coolers and intercoolers as well as fans at the show from China, India, Japan and Korea, and the quality of their products is getting better and better. We will continue to visit Automechanika Shanghai because it’s important for our business. It’s very far away but it’s worth the trip.”
Industry players benefit from popular fringe programme
Automechanika Shanghai is also reputable for its fringe programme, providing valuable educational and information exchange opportunities. This year’s show offered a wide range of 38 innovative and practical fringe events for different levels of industry players. Events covered the three major automotive sectors as well as hot topics such as e-commerce development and electric vehicles and related products.
One noteworthy event was the SAE Vehicle Electronics and Powertrain Technology Forum 2014. Approximately 150 industry specialists attended to learn about the automotive industry’s critical issues and were addressed by speakers from OEMs, systems integrators, tier suppliers and universities. Mr Gary Schkade, General Manager, China and Managing Director Asia Pacific, SAE International, China was one of the keynote speakers at the event. Speaking about the forum, he explained: “Automechanika Shanghai is a great place for us to hold this seminar. Every year we work with our partners to assess its success. This is our second year doing the seminar and we are making a vision for our work, and by all means Automechanika Shanghai is one of the key parts of who we are and what we do.”
To meet the industry trend of the new energy sector, high profile conference entitled “NextGen Auto International Summit China” brought 14 influential speakers and around 400 delegates including car manufacturers, senior Chinese government representatives and industry experts to cover topics based on the development of the future trend of new energy vehicles. One of them was Tesla, a famous electric car manufacturer, which usually exhibits at car show instead of automotive industry trade fair like Automechanika Shanghai. This year, they participated and displayed their EV cars at the show as well as speaking at the conference as they recognised the show’s strong influence as a networking and marketing platform.
In addition to well-known companies organising forums and seminars at Automechanika Shanghai, a number of overseas and domestic government agencies have made use of this highly recognised industry event to promote their regional industry, helping industry players capitalise on opportunities in various potential markets. For example, a number of seminars and events were organised by the Trade & Investment Promotion Section of Consulate General of Poland, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Shandong Sub-Council as well as the Wenzhou Municipal Government, with the latter organising a seminar and press conference at the show. The support and recognition from these high level associations and government agencies has further underlined the show’s important role for the industry.
Automechanika Shanghai is organised by Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai) Co Ltd and the China National Automotive Industry International Corporation (CNAICO). It is one of 14 Automechanika fairs held in Africa, Asia, Europe and Central and South America.
The 2015 edition of the show will be held 2 – 5 December 2015 at a larger venue to accommodate for the year on year growth of the show. The new venue is confirmed as the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Hongqiao, Puxi. For further information about Automechanika Shanghai, please visit www.automechanika-shanghai.com / www.automechanika.com.
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