GERMANY – WORLDWIDE – When a freight and logistics exhibition can boast an attendance with well over half the exhibitors and visitors emanating from outside the home country it can truly be called international and such is the case with the CeMAT event which has just ended in Hannover. Drawing some 53,000 visitors from 65 nations, this year’s CeMAT made a perfect three-point landing: 33% of attendees came from abroad, with Europe taking a 70% share, followed by Asia with 13%, the Americas with 9%, Africa with 5% and Australia with 3%. The top 15 visitor nations were the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, France, the United States, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, South Africa, and China.
There was a strong increase in attendance from the United Kingdom, Poland, the United States and Russia. Compared with the 2011 event, this year’s CeMAT attracted twice as many exhibitors and visitors from the US, one of the world’s leading intralogistics nations. CeMAT statistics show 80% of visitors were decision-makers with purchasing authority who travelled to Hannover with concrete projects and investment plans and visitors from abroad represented approximately twice the investment potential of their German counterparts with almost one out of every two visitors coming from the top echelons of management. Dr. Andreas Gruchow, Member of the Managing Board at Deutsche Messe in charge of CeMAT, commented:
“Staged under the slogan of ‘Smart – Integrated – Efficient’, this year’s CeMAT demonstrated that high-tech logistics is essential for virtually any business which wants to remain viable and competitive. CeMAT’s status as the world’s flagship intralogistics fair was impressively underscored by live displays of complete logistics solutions and products in our halls and on the open-air site. Exhibitors came to Hannover with high expectations for generating international leads, and those expectations were met.
“CeMAT represents a booming industrial sector and this year yielded 1.7 million business leads. That is a significant increase compared to 2011. Our exhibitors are very satisfied and have closed deals worth millions of euros. Impressive attendance figures for Russia and Brazil clearly demonstrate that our CeMAT events abroad, in this case CeMAT RUSSIA and CeMAT SOUTH AMERICA, had a positive influence on attendance here at CeMAT in Hannover. I estimate that orders worth more than ten billion euros were initiated here – a new CeMAT record.”
Intralogistics is defined as managing the flow of materials through the entire length of the supply chain and CeMAT aims to be a meeting place for those who supply technical systems and services to help other companies manage their in-house materials handling requirements and a raft of potential clients. This year’s exhibition showcased more than 4,000 innovations from 1,025 exhibiting firms and the strong international flavour prompted Sascha Schmel, President of the Materials Handling and Logistics Systems Sector Association within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), to remark:
“Internationalisation is one of the key drivers of the intralogistics industry, particularly here in Germany. Our intralogistics suppliers have a world export share of 19%, almost 5% higher than China, and over 8% more than the United States. In 2013, Germany posted total export earnings of around 13 billion euros for intralogistics. CeMAT is where the German intralogistics sector meets its international clients, and that is the event’s unique selling point. The feedback we received during the week has been positive across the board, with big numbers of high-calibre leads and requests for project quotes pointing to a highly successful CeMAT. As the VDMA materials handling and logistics industry association and as a CeMAT partner, we are delighted at the success of our members, which is also a success for the entire industry and of course for the event’s organisers at Deutsche Messe.”
The new thematic landscape at CeMAT went over well with attendees. In the Move & Lift, Store & Load, Pick & Pack, Logistics IT and Manage & Service display categories, exhibitors presented their offerings on total display space of 120,000 square meters. The Industry 4.0 theme featured prominently throughout the show. The focus was on achieving flexible, dynamic material flows and seamless communication across all systems. Dr. Christoph Beumer, Managing Director and Chairman of BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG and President of the CeMAT Executive Committee, observed:
“The intralogistics sector is a prime driver of innovation, spawning growth in other industries. Without intralogistics, the automotive industry, the wholesale and retail businesses, eCommerce and even mechanical engineering would be unthinkable. The CeMAT motto of ‘Smart – Integrated – Efficient’ was right on the mark, underscoring the need to apply the sector’s vast know-how in order to arrive at holistic, streamlined solutions for every link of the intralogistics chain. This motto reflects the fact that Industry 4.0 is already a tangible reality, and that we are in a position to pass its benefits on to our customers. For Germany’s intralogistics suppliers, CeMAT represents a major opportunity to get in early and generate valuable leads across other markets. For a great many of these companies, targeting international customers is the only promising way to achieve real growth. For example, countries like Russia, India, China and Brazil offer incredible potential for the future.”
In the industrial image processing category, exhibitors showcased the state of the art in packaging, production and container management. Another hot topic: demographic changes leading to a rising need for ergonomic warehouse and load picking workstations. Among the new products unveiled at this year’s fair were data glasses capable of optimizing warehouse and load picking work processes, and tablet-based approaches to managing entire warehouses and their logistics processes.
CeMAT also featured two rich forum programs which put the spotlight on key applications and important markets. A broad range of themes was covered: demographic shifts, the retail and wholesale trade, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, supply chain management, driverless transport systems, ports, process optimisation, eCommerce, hazardous materials, human/machine interaction, safety and quality, as well as industrial image processing. The new display category on the open-site devoted to used industrial trucks proved to be a major visitor magnet, helping many vehicles find new owners in the course of the week.
The next CeMAT will run for four days and be held in two years, from Tuesday, 31 May, to Friday, 3 June 2016 – once again in Hannover. An innovative new pricing scheme will give exhibitors a more differentiated range of participation options. This makes Deutsche Messe the first major German trade fair company to apply a flexible, zone-based pricing model for in-hall and open-air locations. And as a further innovation, the hall layout plans will be posted online as of December 2014, allowing interested exhibitors to book space online and receive immediate confirmation by e-mail.
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