Inside story

From the premiere event through to 2006, the number of exhibitors taking part in CeMAT Asia had grown steadily, but last year saw this figure stagnated at around 350 exhibitors. This year we are expecting the numbers to go up again to 380 exhibitors, with a display area of approximately 10,000 sq m.

Last year approximately 50,000 visitors attended CeMAT and PTC Asia [its sister show]. The vast majority (90%) were from China, over 1% of the visitors came from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Among the remaining visitors (around 8%), 57% were from other Asian countries, 26% from Europe, 6% from North America, 4% from South America, 1% from Africa and 3% from Australia. We expect a similar number of visitors at this year's event.

In recent years the net floor area allocated to the show has also grown consistently. In 2000 it occupied 2,330 sq m, rising to 9,500 sq m last year. This year we plan to increase this to 10,000 sq m.

It will remain an annual event for the foreseeable future. At present we have no plans to the contrary, but we are naturally keeping an eye on market developments so that we can react quickly to changes.

Cranes and lifting equipment play an important role in intralogistics and are therefore pivotal to CeMAT Asia. Many major equipment manufacturers already exhibit at the event. There are plans to expand and develop this display category in the coming year. To this end, we are cooperating with the CMES (Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society), which boasts a great deal of expertise in this field, and together we will be organising a forum dedicated to this segment.

We use our observation of individual markets as a basis for developing our market strategies, but we prefer to look at complete sectors rather than focusing too narrowly on individual segments.