Global interest in SA Auto opportunities

Exhibitors and delegates from around the world will be attending the South African Automotive Week to be hosted in Port Elizabeth from October 10-13.

Over 300 exhibitors are expected to be showcasing their products and equipment at the South African Automotive Week Tradeshow, which is the only dedicated automotive components industry showcase in South Africa.
A number of the components and equipment exhibitors will be represented by senior executives from their overseas headquarters, according to Andrew Binning, director of South African Automotive Week 2012.

“They are definitely here to talk business. We can see it in the bookings for our networking area, which will be busy from early morning to late at night,” he says.

Covering around 10 000 square metres, the South African Automotive Week Trade Show is one of the biggest ever staged in the Eastern Cape.

In addition to the company executives, the event will be attended by commercial attaches from a number of countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, Turkey, and Venezuela.
They will be joined by business delegations from China, India, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mexico – among others.

Analysis of hits on the South African Automotive Week website reflects this trend, with interest from China, India, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Lesotho, the United States and Turkey.

“This shows that South Africa is firmly positioned on the global automotive supply map. From the feedback we are getting, many of the delegates see the country as a gateway to and manufacturing hub for Africa,” he says.
First Automotive Works (FAW) from China will be displaying some of the vehicles it is to assemble in the Coega IDZ for distribution in Africa.

Also attracting delegates is a number of conferences which are being hosted at The Boardwalk together with the trade expo. South Africa’s automotive industry will be mapping the way to the “high” road at the Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC) conference, which with 320 delegates is fully subscribed.

“Delegates at the conference include many of the South African auto industry leaders, as well as local and provincial government,” says Binning.

Department of Trade and Industry minister Rob Davies and transport minister Ben Martins have confirmed that they will be joining the 600 guests at the gala dinner on the Wednesday evening.

Other important conferences and meetings organised for South African Automotive Week include the merSETA regional annual general meeting, an Exporters Club Meeting, a Green Automotive Technologies Seminar hosted by the VWSA-DAAD International Chair in Automotive Engineering at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and an Energy Savings Workshop hosted by the Mining and Industrial Energy Optimisation organisation.

South African Automotive Week is made possible by the Eastern Cape Province, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Coega, the East London IDZ, merSETA, the IDC and Transnet.

For more information go to www.saaw.co.za