Opportunity for One-stop shopping

The Taiwan Hardware Show from 21 to 23 October is fully booked, with exhibition company Kaigo expecting over 320 exhibitors. Nearly 300 exhibitors attended last year, when 21 636 visitors from 58 countries were recorded. The fair is regarded as a significant procurement platform in Asia and is seen as an opportunity for one-stop shopping in the hardware and tool categories. It attracts manufacturers active on the international stage, including winners of design awards such as the iF award and the red dot award.
The show is divided into eight major areas: Tools & Accessories, Locks & Fittings, Fasteners & Fittings, Building Supplies, Garden & Outdoor Equipment, Automotive Supplies & Accessories, Machines & Plant Equipment and Safety Equipment & Products. Talks, seminars and product launches are organised in parallel with the fair, and the organiser also arranges visits to manufacturing companies. Buyers can receive a financial subsidy to help cover their accommodation costs.

First established 14 years ago, the show is taking place in Taichung for the second time. The region is considered to be the centre of the Taiwanese hardware and tool industry, with over 10 000 businesses accounting for more than 60 per cent of production by the Taiwanese industry as a whole.
Although production in the previous year stagnated, the country’s hand tool industry had a volume of USD 2.2556 bn in 2013, ten per cent higher than the value in the previous year. Of this volume, goods to the value of USD 1.942 bn were exported, roughly 1.3 per cent less than the previous year.
The figures were provided by the Metal Industry Research & Development Centre, a government-funded market research organisation. Analysts believe that the downturn is due to the slow-down in growth of its major customer China, with which Taiwan has concluded a trade agreement, and the debt crisis in the European Union. Although the values diminished slightly in the first two quarters of 2014 – the production value in the first quarter was down by 0.4 per cent compared with the same quarter in the previous year, and will probably be down by 4.8 per cent in the second – the Taiwanese market researchers expect the year to be positive on the whole. They…