Asian dominance

Around 2 700 exhibitors from 51 countries are expected to attend the International Hardware Fair to be staged in Cologne from 28 February to 3 March 2010. More than half of these, namely 1 372 companies, will be coming from China (960) and Taiwan (412). However, they will occupy only a third of the exhibition space. The third-largest contingent of 380 exhibitors is coming from Germany, followed by Italy with 217. Altogether around 80 per cent of the exhibitors will be coming from abroad. Fair organiser Oliver P. Kuhrt explains the high level of Asian participation by the quicker recovery of the economic situation in Asia.