On the occasion of the first appearance of Usetec in Cologne, the organiser Florian Hess is satisfied with the reactions of the exhibitors. In spite of the troubles in the Arab world, he expects as many visitors as have come in the past.
Herr Hess, a new venue, new partners and a new name. What are you expecting this change to bring in the way of the number of exhibitors and the number of visitors?
At such a premiere one is always a little modest in one’s expectations. But we have a long tradition which has given us a lot of experience, and now at the new venue we hope to rise to new heights. We are satisfied with the reaction from exhibitors. However, the exhibitors have tended to reserve larger booth areas and the total available area is the same as in 2009. For this reason we will not be able to accommodate the same number of exhibitors.
The European EAMTM association is not taking part. What effect will this have on the participation of foreign exhibitors?
It will have absolutely no effect on the international appeal. Already the proportion of non-German exhibitors is over 30%, representing 25 different countries. Even if the Association is not taking part as an official partner, many individual members have decided not to miss out on this premiere. A newly formed association from Italy, including former EAMTM members, is putting on a group booth and there is also another group booth from Holland.
After the deep crisis of 2009 German economy has enjoyed an enormous rebound. What effect will this have on Usetec?
In the case of the German exhibitors, who are after all 70% of the total, this rebound came relatively early. They are booking larger booth areas and showing more machines. Some are already having problems in producing the volume required, and I didn’t expect that to happen so quickly. There are also the first signs of longer delivery periods for new machines. This has an effect on the market for used machines, especially in Germany. There are still signs of weakness in Southern Europe, whereas in Scandinavia and England demand is picking up well.
You have increased the advertising in order to attract more visitors from North Africa and the Middle East. What effects do you expect from the current political instability?
These can only be negative. In the medium term, however, we believe that our activities will pay off. However, compared to Eastern Europe, the number of visitors from the Arab world will be very much less. There is, however, a surprising amount of interest from Iraq, which has, as do other Arab countries, a long way to catch up. The number of visitors does not however tell the whole story. Last year for example the number of visitors from Iceland was, because of the clouds of ash from the volcanic eruption, only two thirds of the usual figure, but in spite of this good business was done.
Why were the dates for the fair in 2012 pulled forward in order to coincide with those of the Eisenwarenmesse? Hitherto it was always thought that it was better to coincide with the Hannover Fair in order to benefit foreign visitors?
The Eisenwarenmesse is particularly strong in the field of tools and industrial equipment. There is a large overlap with these two fairs. Both have a large number of foreign visitors, of which 35%–45% come from industrial companies. This gives us the chance of appealing to groups, who are not necessarily thinking in terms of used machines, but are thinking more of equipping factories or even investing in internal transport systems and logistics. We believe that we may in this way discover an exciting new potential. And 60,000 visitors on the same fairground has to be better than travelling for 2–3 hours by train from Hannover.
Dr. Rolf Langbein
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