Press Release

November 2010

Automechanika Argentina reaffirmed itself as an excellent
platform to present new products and services and to keep and extend business contacts directly.

39,896 professional visitors and businessmen related to the
sector took part in the fair. Visitors came from 44 countries, thus exceeding both exhibitors and organisers' expectations.

The sixth edition of Automechanika Argentina came to an end with
excellent results. During the fair, the main players of the national and international market in the spare part industry attended a unique meeting for the sector.

Celebrating 10 years of Automechanika in Argentina, 68 companies
which took part in all editions of the fair were honored. Thus, they
received a plaque to recognize their effort and support. It is worth
mentioning that since 2000, Automechanika Argentina grew 140%
regarding the number of exhibitors and that the number of foreign
companies has also increased.

In the 2010 edition, 226 international companies took part. These
companies came from 23 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India,
Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Senegal, Spain,
Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United States, and Uruguay. There
were in total 542 exhibitors.

In the opening ceremony, the President of Indexport Messe Frankfurt, Mr. Fernando Gorbarán, apart from thanking the joint work of exhibitors, sponsors and sector chambers, he addressed
professionals and businessmen by saying that: “It is a great
satisfaction as Messe Frankfurt Argentina, to have the responsibility
of enabling our customers to do good businesses, of being a regional
integration platform for visitors and buyers to find the best Argentine
products and also a varied offer of international products
”.

Besides, he highlighted that: “This time we not only have the
recognition of the Argentine Government that declared the fair of
national interest but also Automechanika Argentina is one of the few
trade fairs included in Bicentennial program. Thus, we feel very proud of it because I believe the spare part sector really deserves this recognition
”.

In the same way, the Senior Vice-president of Messe Frankfurt,
Stephan Kurzawski, welcomed all exhibitors and visitors and
highlighted that: “Automechanika Argentina has developed and
became a platform for decision taking in this market and it is the
second event in importance for Automechanika brand outside
Germany
”. And referring to 10 years of presence of Automechanika
brand in Argentina, he remembered that we are celebrating: “Ten
years of commercial opportunities, of hundreds of thousands visitors
and 10 years of being the leading fair in the region, 10 years of trust, 10 years of growth, 10 years of team work, 10 years of brand and also 10 years of market and 10 years of being in the country
”.

Then, the President of the Association of Argentine Component
Manufacturers (AFAC), Mr. Fabio Rozenblum, stated that: “I'm very proud to see how Automechanika Argentina has positioned
throughout the editions as one of the most important spare part fairs
of the world. We talk a lot about value chain and I believe this fair is
an important part because every two years shows the development
and growth of the spare part industry. Besides, Automechanika
Argentina does another job that is to help our spare part
manufacturers to improve the export offering. I deem it important to
highlight companies, mainly small and medium companies, for their
effort to take part and exhibit their products, and I believe results are seen year after year
”.

The Chief of Cabinet of the Argentine Department of Industry, Bach. Horacio Cepeda, was also present, stated his satisfaction regarding the fair and said the following: “The fair density, its importance, what you see that happened with companies, the quality of the stands, the number of exhibiting companies...is a surprising phenomenon and thus I congratulate AFAC and Messe Frankfurt”. Regarding his tasks as government employee, he highlighted that: “From the Department we support the fair and Argentina is working with small and medium companies, we try them to become international because we know this is the way that will help them grow. (…) This fair is a window in which we show everything we can do and everything we are”.

Once the opening ceremony finished, the inauguration ribbon was cut with the presence of Eng. Juan José Bertero, Minister of Production of Santa Fe Province. Then, the official visit took place.

Among the academic activities, it is worth mentioning:

  • -Seminar “To a Model of Cooperation and Trust in the Automotive Industry", organized by the Association of Argentine Component Manufacturers (AFAC). The activity was divided in two modules in which subjects relevant to the automotive industry future were covered, mainly subjects focused on commercial opportunities offered by Argentina. The closing was in charge of Bach. Débora Giorgi, Minister of Industry of Argentina, who stated: “We are heading a greater integration of the automotive industry and a greater production with national components. We are working to reach a million cars in 2014”. Then, a symbolic inauguration was made in AFAC stand.
     

  • Tuner Challenge II, during 4 days a live repair shop was carried out to transform 3 vehicles: an exclusive BMW 318i E36 Coupe Cabriolet with double roof, a Sea Ray 180 Signature Boat furnished with a V8 engine and a Seadoo Rxt-x 260 HP jet ski. A team made up by painters, mechanics, upholsterers, electricians and technicians worked in the transformation of three units and a sum of $ 240,000
    has been invested.
     

  • During the 3rd International Matchmaking Program of Spare Part Buyers, 675 meetings were carried out among Argentine companies related to the spare parts sector and foreign importing companies, dealers and/or possible commercial partners. In the meetings international buyers from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, France, Mexico, Russia, Spain and South Africa took part.
     

  • Fulfilling its commitment to the industry, Automechanika Argentina also gave all visitors almost 40 updating conferences on interesting subjects for the sector organized by exhibiting companies that were coordinated by Automechanika Academy. In this sense, a group of
    600 repair shop members belonging to the Argentine Federation of the Association of Repair Shops for Cars and the like (FAATRA), visited the premises on Saturday 20th, and then attended the 5 conferences specially prepared to give technical training in the automotive repair sector.
     

  • The meeting of the Mercosur Spare Parts Council (Mercoparts) was also celebrated to discuss the present situation of spare parts market in the region. Representatives of four member entities participated in the event: the Argentine Association of Component Manufacturers (AFAC), the National Union for the Component Industry for Automotive Vehicles (SINDIPEÇAS), the Paraguayan
    Chamber of Spare Parts and Engine Parts Manufacturers
    (CAPAFAM) and the Chamber of Spare Parts Components
    Manufacturers of Uruguay (CFCA). The axes discussed were the following: the duty scheme for spare parts not produced in the region and capital goods, the negotiation of Mercosur with Europe, the certification system for spare parts in the Mercosur and the requirements regarding standards for safety parts to commercialize in the region. During the meeting, new authorities were chosen and AFAC head, Fabio Rozenblum, will take on the presidency of the region council for two years.

Some exhibiting companies gave their opinion on the result of their
participation in the fair:

FRIC- ROT
Carolina Gotter, Marketing Manager

We have been able to successfully contact spare part sector
customers and we highly trust in the fair because it is a meeting point in which customers meet their suppliers, colleagues. (…) We will continue trusting Messe Frankfurt and Automechanika because we are sure that it is an event that really gathers the whole sector
”.
 

MAGNETI MARELLI
Cecilia Bañares, Marketing
“We are really grateful to take part in the fair; we received the visit of all our dealers, a lot of people from Venezuela, México, Chile,
Paraguay. It is the third edition of this fair in which we take part and
we will surely go on participating”.

MANN HUMMEL
Daniela del Prete, Marketing
“We have received the visit of our customers, dealers, prospects, thus our participation has been very positive. We have scheduled lots of meetings. Our idea is go on participating in Automechanika to
reinforce positioning (...) It has been very positive regarding the visit of our dealers, the contact, they dynamics of the structure and how we schedule our meetings and the visit of our dealers from
throughout the country, and of America and United States, a good
chance to gather all and do new businesses and contact prospects.
We project to take part again in Automechanika, one of the most
important events”.

SCHAEFFLER
Claudio Boggiano, Product Manager
We use this fair as a communication vehicle to the market and to our customers and we deem it excellent. And this year we are very
pleased with the visitors' attendance and with the commitment of our
customers in relation to our products. We see that year after year
Automechanika improves, offers us the possibility to improve our
businesses and contact customers
”.

VALEO
Eng. Luis Crembil, Commercial Head
This year we have seen great participation in the fair, mainly from
South American professionals: Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador are
requesting information and developing new businesses. Obviously,
our idea is to go on participating in Automechanika in the next years. Valeo always tries to be close to customers and this in an excellent opportunity to do it
”.

VEMO (Germany)
Uta Holzfuss, Export Division Head
“We have contacted many new customers, we are here for the first
time and we have also found many customers from other countries
such as Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. We will come back to the next
Automechanika because it is very well organized”.

VOLKSWAGEN
Guillermo Agesta, Aftersales Manager
In the event we have developed branding activities, a very positive
brand diffusion and sales operations (…) The event has been very
good to us, we have seen it better organized, bigger and with a
greater number of exhibitors than other editions and it has been
widely positive for the brand. It is the most important event for us in
the sales of spare parts for the last two years
”.

WEGA
Rafael Neto, President
It has really been a great honor for us to take part in this international event. If we have to grade it we will give it a 10. We have received the visit of many professionals from abroad, we have made new contacts, people interested in our products, in the Argentine product, and we can also highlight that there is a very good level of stands (...) In our country, spare part manufacturers deserve to have an fair like this”.

ZF SERVICES ARGENTINA
Carlos Alberto Contini, Commercial Manager
This is the tenth edition of Automechanika, we have participated from the very beginning, we really trust in this spare part fair, which is the most important in Argentina and the one that represents us before all customers not only from our country, but also from South America, which have come with good businesses. We are in an interesting situation for the country and the market and this is shown by the quality of stands and professionals that visited us, and we will be present in Automechanika 2012 for sure”.

Automechanika Argentina 2012, South America's International
Automotive Trade Fair from Design to Maintenance and Recycling,
will be carried out on November 14-17, 2012 in La Rural Trade
Center
, Buenos Aires.

For information: www.automechanika.com.ar

Background information on Messe Frankfurt
Messe Frankfurt is Germany’s leading trade fair organiser, with 424 million euros in sales in 2009 and more than 1,660 employees worldwide. The Messe Frankfurt Group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries, five branch offices and 52 international Sales Partners,
giving it a presence for its customers in more than 150 countries. Events “made by Messe Frankfurt” take place at more than 30 locations around the globe. In 2009, Messe Frankfurt organised more than 90 trade fairs, of which more than half took place outside
Germany.
Messe Frankfurt’s exhibition grounds, featuring 578,000 square metres, are currently home to ten exhibition halls and an adjacent Congress Center. The company is publicly owned, with the City of Frankfurt holding 60 percent and the State of Hesse 40 percent.
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com

Background information on Indexport Messe Frankfurt
Created in 1990, Indexport is a service company specialized in access to market. As from year 2003, through the purchase of stock by the German company, Indexport became Indexport Messe Frankfurt, the Argentinean affiliate of the worldwide trade fair organization leader. The purpose of the fairs is to promote actual business meetings to
boost activity in regional markets, in the domestic market and in turn prompt the development of the technological pole in each area.
The current portfolio of shows of Indexport Messe Frankfurt includes the following: Automechanika Argentina, BIEL Light + Building, Cosmesur Beautyworld Buenos Aires, ExpoCehap, ExpoFerretera, Hair&Beauty Buenos Aires, Intersec Buenos Aires, MetalExpo, Seguriexpo Buenos Aires, Tecno Fidta and a number of congresses.
For more information, please visit our website at: www.indexport.com.ar