German textile machinery sector shows great interest in Asean

Germany's textile machinery industry is interested in tapping the huge Asean market besides focusing on China and India, said Elgar Straub, German Machinery Manufacturers' Association managing director.

He said the German textile industry had in the past concentrated a great deal on China and India because of the sheer size of these two markets.

"But, we are also interested in Asean markets which are attractive because of the huge business potential inherent in the region," Straub told Bernama.

Germany's sewing and garment technology exports worldwide in 2013 amounted to 466.26 million euro and was the third largest supplier of sewing and garment technology, trailing behind China with 1.679 billion euro and Japan at 537 million euro.

The biggest markets for German sewing and garment technology worldwide in 2013 were the United States, India, Turkey, Italy, France, China,Russia, Poland and Hong Kong.

Messe Frankfurt, which organises the Heimtextil Show, the world's largest home-textile show in Frankfurt, also made a strong pitch for the forthcoming Techtextil fair to be held in Frankfurt from May 4 to 7, 2015.

Messe Frankfurt's Michael Jaenecke, the brand management director for technical textiles and textile processing, claimed that there had been very strong demand for space from exhibitors.

Parallel to the Techtextil, Messe Frankfurt is also organising the twin sister fair called Texprocess, a dedicated show for textile and flexible materials processing.

Jaenecke maintained that while the Techtextil had existed for many years, the Texprocess event, which was launched in 2011, had grown exponentially and that the fair organiser was holding the two shows for four days instead of the regular three-day run, as in the past.

Messe Frankfurt vice-president for Textiles and Textile Technology Olaf Schmidt told Bernama that 95 percent of the exhibition space was already sold out although there were still four months to go before the start of the show.

Techtextil is expected to attract a good turnout of exhibitors from Asia, including Asean.

Indeed, a number of Asian countries are planning to set up national pavilions at the Techtextil Fair to provide a common roof to exhibitors and buyers interested in sealing up deals at the event.

The ongoing Heimtextil show has attracted a large turnout of Asian exhibitors, led by China with 513 exhibitors followed by India (390), Pakistan (219), Turkey (159),Taiwan (60), Hong Kong (31) and Bangladesh (20).

For the first time in many years, Malaysia had a single debutant with the participation of a Selangor-based Fennex Sdn Bhd which was doing good business at the show with a steady stream of buyers visiting its stand.

Also conspicuous by their presence were the three exhibitors from Iran who participates in very few, if any, German trade fairs.

Both China and India had far larger presence than any other exhibiting nation, even surpassing the 342 exhibitors from the host nation Germany.