Page 54 - The Tyreman 2019 - 2
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exhibition-Tyrexpo Asia 2019
SingEx Innovates to Add New Impetus to Tyrexpo Asia
Tyrexpo Asia has long been considered the leading international tyre industry ex- hibition in Asia, and with good reason, but in a world where exhibitions are becoming ever more regionalised and segmented, show organ- isers SingEx are having to become increasingly inventive and original in order to make sure their maintains its leading position.
Of course, the situation is not helped when the show coincides with another tyre exhibition in Indonesia, an automotive equipment and parts show in Malaysia and a garage equipment show in China, as it did this year. That said, the challenge is wider than that, with Tyrexpo Asia also having to compete with the various annual Chinese tyre shows as well as local tyre industry exhibitions in other South East Asian markets such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia and specialist events such as the Asian Retread Conference.
There is also the fact that many of the equip- ment suppliers from both the retread and ga- rage sectors who have traditionally supported the show, have decided over the years to either niches, or to reduce their participation by no longer displaying equipment on their stands.
Of course, the slack has been taken up by the many Chinese tyre manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and brokers, often supported by Chinese government money, but this has only served to alter the balance of the show to the point that it appears heavily oversubscribed by Chinese traders, a problem which is far from unique to SingEx.
As far as the retreading sector is concerned, the show is still supported by key equipment suppliers like Newera, Liew Koon and Elgi, and by several of the Malaysian tread rubber sup- pliers including Maxrubber, Eversafe and Sun Rubber, but these suppliers only make up a very small proportion of the total exhibitors at the show.
This change in the market for tyre exhibitions is not an easy one to solve. SingEx do have one ad- vantage in the location, as Sin- gapore is a city which attracts Asians and Westerners alike.
Nonetheless, maintaining Tyr- expo Asia’s position in the market needs more than that. During the show we met with show director Ian Wu to talk about some of the activities and measures SingEx had introduced in order to add new impetus to Tyrexpo Asia.
Speaking towards the end of the first day of the show, Wu professed himself to be satis- fied with the response to this year’s event.
“The attendance and buzz at the show is good,” he said. Overall, there has been a growing interest in the South East Asian region, especially as a result of some of the protectionist actions that have been going on around the world. We are expecting a slight growth - ing around 4,500 to 5,000 attend- ees in total including both exhibi- tors and visitors.”
The show certainly did seem to be slightly busier than in recent
54 the tyreman 2019/2
