The 2018 Taiwan International Fastener Show, which ran 10-12 April, broke its own records, with the most exhibitors and booths recorded at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Centre since it was founded.
This year’s show saw 415 exhibitors (2016: 402) and over 1,107 booths (2016: 1,002).
According to the official statistics, 2,193 international buyers (2016: 2,000) from 73 countries (2016: 75) visited. Participation increased 10% compared to the last show, in 2016, and over 30,000 domestic and foreign visitors also attended (2016 total: 28,586).
Up to 90% of buyers expressed their approval and satisfaction with this year’s exhibition and over 80% expressed their intention to return in 2020.
The top-ten purchasing nations this year were mainland China, Japan, India, United States, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand. There were 70% more buyers from Italy this year, with more buyers also attending from Germany, Thailand, Brazil, Russia, and France, demonstrating that the exhibition has become an ideal business procurement platform for the global fastener industry, the organiser said.
Fastener Summit & procurement meetings
The 2018 exhibition featured a variety of activities, including the Global Fastener Summit held on the opening day of the exhibition, featuring a car fastener-theme. The European Fastener Distributor Association (EFDA), Auto Manufacturer Mercedes Benz (Germany), Vissart Europe (France), TR Fastenings (UK), and QST International (Taiwan) were all invited to analyse the global automotive fastener industry and market trends. The summit drew over 250 fastener industry representatives from 19 countries including Taiwan, United States, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, India, Poland, China, Brazil, South Korea, and Japan. The entire summit was also broadcast live to over 1,600 online viewers.
Taiwan International Fastener Show procurement meetings were held during the exhibition. Fifty-one ‘heavyweight’ buyers from Germany, United States, Russia, France, Brazil, and South Africa were invited to participate in 230 negotiation sessions with 78 domestic exhibitors, generating venue and potential business opportunities of up to US$270 million.
The first ever One-on-One Employment Meetings event attracted 6 domestic manufacturers and 16 applicants to 46 matching sessions. Five applicants were potentially hired as manufacturing employees. Two seminars focused separately on India and Indonesia’s fastener markets and smart manufacturing, and attracted over 300 fastener manufacturers.
We’ll have more Taiwan International Fastener Show reports and coverage in our next issues of Torque Magazine.