Tyrexpo Asia has long been established as the leading pan-Asian event within the tyre industry. This year’s event was the 11th edition of the show, and took place from 21-23 March at the Singapore Expo Centre.
Tyrexpo Asia Introduces Innovative Features to Attract Visitors
At a time when more or less every national market in Asia now has its own tyre show, Singex, the organisers of Tyrexpo Asia, have recognised the need add a variety of different attractions at their show in order to maintain a leading profile, and it has to be said, the organisers made a decent fist of creating enough visitor attractions to keep attendees interested.
To begin with, this year featured the launch of the inaugural GarageXpo Asia, which featured tyre equipment and parts. The organisers also introduced several new event features such as TyreTalk/GarageTalk Seminars (which included a couple of presentations of interest to retreaders), Tyrexpo/GarageXpo Technical Workshop, Commercial Vehicle Showcase, Telematics Zone, Qingdao Pavilion as well as the ITE Automotive Skills Competition. The show also featured as part of World Rubber Week, which was hosted at a separate venue.
There was a feeling that actual attendance at Tyrexpo Asia may not have been quite as high as it could have been. However, visitor quality from among the 4,578 visitors and 248 exhibitors from 25 countries remained high – and certainly more international than any of the competing shows around the region.
On the negative side the show was, as one might expect, dominated by the Chinese tyre manufacturers and a plethora of agents and distribution companies from that country. The influx of exhibitors from China has certainly helped Tyrexpo Asia expand significantly since the show was acquired by Singex, but this can also be a negative thing because there was a perceived imbalance in the makes up of exhibitors. This was not helped by the last-minute withdrawal of BKT and the non-appearance of other major players like Apollo and YHI, who have supported the show in the past. In truth the organisers will need to address how they deal with this issue, if the show is not simply to end up becoming a showcase for the Chinese tyre industry. Perhaps the solution is to limit the number of small agents and private brand suppliers. That said, if the larger non-Chinese exhibitors simply walk out in protest, that is not a solution which will ultimately guarantee a more even exhibitor profile, and those who did not support the show need to recognise that.
As far as the retreading industry in concerned, the show was set against a background of several months of rising raw materials prices, which has resulted in an increased optimism in the retreading industry – a feeling of respite following the raising of prices by the Chinese tyre manufacturers.
As always Tyrexpo Asia was well supported by suppliers and manufacturers from the region. Malaysian tread rubber manufacturers Maxrubber, Nam Bee, Kayel and Eversafe were all present, as were Elgi from India and Jianxin from China. The three leading equipment distributors from the region, Italmatic Asia, Liew Koon and Newera Equipment also attended the show.
