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Automechanika Thailand – Bangkok, 6-9 March
Over 130 exhibitors from 11 countries and regions confirmed for second Automechanika Thailand • Thai government gives incentives to SME’s for Automechanika Thailand 2008
Automechanika Thailand, the leading international trade fair for the automotive parts, components and aftermarket industry in Thailand, is scheduled from 6 – 9 March 2008 at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Centre, Bangkok. Recognising the rapidly growing automotive market in Thailand, global manufacturers and local organisations have pledged their support for this year’s event.
As of December 2007, over 130 exhibitors from 11 countries and regions have confirmed their participation at Automechanika Thailand 2008. A number of international brands will be showcasing parts & systems, accessories & tuning, repair & maintenance and service station & car wash equipment products at the fair. Among them, will be Liqui-Moly, Bando, KYB, Forch and Knorr Bremse. The presence of these international brands illustrates that the global industry views Automechanika Thailand as an important meeting place, mainly as it is being held in one of the fastest growing regions in the world for the automotive sector.
In an effort to contribute to the rapidly expanding automotive market, the Thai government has pledged an incentive for small and medium sized local enterprises wishing to participate in the 2008 event. A special business-matching plan, Automotive Supplier Development Programme, will greatly enhance the Thai presence in the global trade while introducing international industry players to one of the fastest growing automotive manufacturing markets in the world. Organised in collaboration with the Board of Industry for Industrial Linkage Development BUILD and Bureau of Supporting Industries BSID, local manufacturers will have the opportunity to meet with the top global buyers to exchange market information, ideas and make new business contacts.
SERNAUTO, the Spanish Automotive Equipment and Components Manufacturers Association, will be joining next year’s event, to serve as a networking point for South East Asian manufacturers and their Spanish counterparts. Founded in 1967, this will be the first time that the association will be exhibiting at the fair. “Traditionally, we have not had many commercial relations in South East Asia. This event presents the perfect opportunity for us to bring two parts of the world together to exchange ideas and invest in trade,” said Foreign Trade Department Officer for SERNAUTO, Mr. David Antolín.
Reinforcing the growing importance of Automechanika Thailand, visitors and exhibitors alike will have the opportunity to witness several product launches at this year’s event. KYB Asia, previously known as Kayaba, Managing Director, Mr. Shinichi Hayashi announced, that the company had recently appointed Siam Motor Parts as sole distributors for KYB, a global hydraulics manufacturer. “By participating in this event, we hope to re-launch our new KYB image to both local and international visitors and to showcase our latest range of ‘sport shock absorbent’ products”. •
Automechanika Roma - 31 January to 3 February 2008
Messe Frankfurt Launches a New Automechanika Trade Fair for Automotive Parts in Italy • International Trade Fair for Automotive Parts, Equipment and Service Suppliers
Messe Frankfurt is continuing its consistent approach to building up its network of trade fairs for the automotive industry. Automechanika Roma, Italy’s International Trade Fair for Automotive Parts, Equipment and Service Suppliers, will have its debut from 31 January to 3 February 2008. Thus, Messe Frankfurt, in addition to organizing the main fair in Germany as well as Automechanika Moscow, Auto+Automechanika St. Petersburg and Automechanika Istanbul, is adding another automotive trade fair in Europe.
Automechanika Roma will be held at Rome’s new fairgrounds “Nuovo Polo Fieristico di Roma” and marks a first step in the wide-ranging strategic alliance between Messe Frankfurt and Fiera di Roma. The main products on show at Automechanika Roma will be replacement and original parts, accessories and services; the primary markets of interest are those of the Mediterranean basin. For this first edition, the organizers expect about 250 exhibitors and around 8,000 trade visitors.
Stephan Kurzawki, area manager for Automechanika, explains: “For some time we had been toying with the idea of organizing an Automechanika targeting the Mediterranean region. On the one hand, Italy is the region’s most important motor vehicle market, with an efficient export-oriented industry; on the other, our market research indicated that the Italian market felt a need for an automotive parts trade fair”.
Italy is one of Europe’s main motor vehicle markets and with its total of 2.5 million new vehicle sales each year comes close behind the German and UK markets. Its share of 18.8% of the European aftermarket puts it in second place, right after Germany. Since the demise of Turin’s Automotor, Italy has not had a specialist fair dedicated to spare parts. This is the gap Automechanika Roma intends to fill.
For years now, Italy has been the foreign country that has provided the greatest number of visitors and exhibitors at the Automechanika in Frankfurt, which is the main international trade fair for the automobile industry. The 2006 edition welcomed almost 600 Italian exhibitors and over 4,000 Italian visitors.
This is what Kurzawski has to say: “Automechanika Roma will in no way be competing with Automechanika Frankfurt, but will instead complement it. Up till now, we have seen that in the case of all 11 versions of Automechanika organized abroad, the main Frankfurt fair receives more visitors from the countries that host those fairs. The regional fairs held abroad emphasize local needs and offer international companies the opportunity to explore those markets on the spot”.
Automechanika Roma, at the very heart of the Mediterranean basin, is primarily aimed at visitors from the Mediterranean countries like those of the Maghreb region, Egypt and Greece. Trade between Europe and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea is destined to grow in the coming years, especially as a result of the new free-trade area (EMFTA) that will come into force in 2010. EMFTA, together with the European free trade zone EFTA, will become one of the world’s largest, covering over 40 countries and around 600-800 million consumers.
In addition to the Automechanika in Frankfurt, Messe Frankfurt organizes 11 Automechanika fairs worldwide. The newest of these, besides Automechanika Roma, are Automechanika Moscow, to be held from 13 to 16 May 2007, and Automechanika Canada, from 26 to 28 September 2007. Further information is available on the Automechanika website. •
August ’07 - Environmentally-Friendly Cars
Representatives of the industry have welcomed and evaluated the tax reform announced by the Government (Spain) in different ways. By means of this reform, the Registration Tax will be linked to environmental criteria, providing a fiscal incentive for those vehicles that pollute the environment the least and proposing higher rates of taxation for vehicles with the highest CO2 emissions. In this respect, vehicles that emit less than 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre will be exempt from paying the tax, whilst those vehicles with emissions over 200 grams will face a tax rate of 14.75%. The intermediate bands will be as follows: 4.75% for vehicles that present emissions of between 120 and 160 grams per kilometre and 9.75% for those vehicles whose emissions are between 160 and 200 grams.
The Spanish Association of Car and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC) has welcomed the reform approved by the Government, which is expected to be introduced by the beginning of next year. ANFAC has stated that "more than 1.1 million cars will benefit from a tax reduction compared to the current rates". This, however, will not lead to a fall in tax revenue, given that, according to ANFAC, this reduction will be compensated by "the increase in the registration tax rates imposed on cars that pollute the environment the most, which means that the overall revenue from the registration tax will remain at a similar level to the current revenue figure". In this respect, in general terms ANFAC does not believe that this tax reform will entail a greater tax burden on consumers and adds that "it is also neutral from a technological point of view, given that it does not favour any type of technology over any other".
ANFAC also welcomes the social impact that the measure is likely to have, pointing out that the tax reductions "will mainly benefit the medium-range and medium-low range car categories, which are the biggest-selling categories in Spain and the categories manufactured on the Spanish market". Furthermore, it also believes that this tax reform will help to redirect demand within the market towards vehicles that pollute the environment less. For example, it trusts that the exemption from paying the registration tax on cars that emit less than 120 grams of CO2 "will serve as an incentive with regard to demand for these kinds of vehicle". To date, these vehicles have only managed to win a 7% share of the market.
In addition, the Association has declared that, in order to achieve a greater impact from an environmental point of view, it is necessary to maintain measures aimed at renewing the vehicle stock, effectively removing older cars from circulation, "these being the vehicles that produce the highest levels of pollution". In this respect, manufacturers have called for an extension and improvement of the Vehicle Renewal Scheme (Plan Prever), which is scheduled to end on 1st January 2008, given that this "would complement the tax measures that have been approved in a much more effective manner from an environmental point of view".
The Federation of Car Dealer Associations (Faconauto) received the announcement in a different manner. In its opinion, the Registration Tax reform approved by the Government "will not have a decisive impact in terms of reducing emissions because it lacks ambition". Furthermore, the Dealers' Federation believes that "it is a contradiction to provide fiscal incentives for less polluting vehicles at the same time as the Renewal Scheme (Plan Prever) is scheduled to be phased out as of 2008, in spite of the rejuvenating effect that this Scheme has had on the Spanish vehicle stock over the last five years, based on the removal of old vehicles from circulation, vehicles that are dangerous and present the highest pollution levels". In this respect, Faconauto proposes that priority be granted to the removal of old vehicles that pollute the environment the most instead of "penalising the purchase of new and more efficient models".
Faconauto believes that this measure also "represents a form of discrimination within the automobile industry in favour of certain models and against others (for example, people-carriers)" and adds that changing the tax to ensure that vehicles that "theoretically" pollute the environment more pay more than environmentally-friendly models "could cause distortions with regard to demand, precisely at a moment in which four-wheel-drive vehicles and high-range vehicles are leading the market".
Blas Vives, the Secretary General of Faconauto, has declared that "any modification of the tax imposed on vehicles should be tackled within the context of a global review of automobile taxation. In line with the proposals that have been made by the European Commission, VAT should be left as the sole tax imposed on the purchase of vehicles and taxation should then focus on the use that is made of vehicles, based on the application of special taxes on fuels, which means that drivers with the highest consumption levels are the ones that pay more".
For its part, the National Association of Motor Vehicle Sellers, Repairers and Spare-Parts Distributors (GANVAM) welcomed the fact that the reform announced by the Government does not entail an increase in the overall tax burden, but has also called for "a determined measure to be introduced by the Government in order to tackle the oldest and highest-polluting segment of the vehicle stock". In this respect, the Association has called for a new Vehicle Renewal Scheme (Plan Prever), one that also takes CO2 emissions into account.
GANVAM believes that the most logical approach would have been to combine the measures proposed with "others aimed at providing an incentive for the removal of the oldest vehicles in the stock, by means of a Vehicle Renewal Scheme (Plan Prever), which has been reduced and is in the process of being phased out entirely on 1st January 2008. This would enable these vehicles to be scrapped and replaced with other new vehicles or second-hand models, but in this case with vehicles that are less than five years old". Furthermore, the Association has stated that the fiscal premium should be based on the purchaser's income tax details (IRPF) and subject to the CO2 emissions of the vehicle that is being purchased, "whether it be new or a second-hand model less than five years old".
In relation to the management of the tax, GANVAM recalls that this form of taxation is now imposed by the Regional Governments, who "can raise the amount by certain percentages". GANVAM has expressed its fear that "the Government's decision could lead to further rises being imposed on the part of the Regional Governments".
Finally, the Association believes it is somewhat "inopportune for the Government to announce a measure five months before it is introduced, especially a measure that can distort a market (by accelerating the purchase of certain vehicles and having a negative impact on other vehicles) that is not exactly flourishing".
