2020 Fastener World\s Exhibition Footprints in 2021-2020

FASTENER FAIR USA

2021/11/09-10

Just before the opening hour at 10 a.m., Fastener World correspondent had seen hordes of visitors getting in long lines to enter Huntington Convention Center. Fastener Fair USA is the only exhibition in the U.S. dedicated to the full supply chain – distributors, mechanical and design engineers, purchasers, wholesalers and OEMs. Local American suppliers and buyers had prepared themselves for this show to make deals, place orders and grasp the rebound of market demand close to the end of the year. The U.S. is bound to further loosen up the restrictions on foreign travelers into the country.

The show was a three-day event, including full-day pre-show conferences on November 8 and full-day exhibition on November 9 and 10. A significant feature of this show was the agreement made between the show organizer and International Fastener Machinery & Suppliers’ Association to combine Fastener Fair USA with International Fastener Manufacturing Exhibition. From fastener to automotive, aerospace, construction to furniture, buyers could find the purchasing sources they needed at Fastener Fair USA with the synergy of scale expansion.

The number of exhibitors reached around 120 2021 (mostly from the east coast of the U.S.). 80% of the exhibitors were manufacturers, followed by distributors. Fastener World correspondent interviewed the exhibitors onsite. In her finding, the 2021 show still marked high fastener demand from OEMs and distributors. The correspondent handing out Fastener World publications at the show felt the strength of buyers’ demand. There were many visitors who expressed their interests in Fastener World publications, and they hoped to promote their products through the publications and the online platform. At the current stage where the predictability of the future has increased, the U.S. suppliers need to reach out to more buyers. After an industrial reshuffle, buyers have to be more active in evaluating existing suppliers and looking for new supply sources. The U.S. business opportunity from the stage is just for you to grasp on. The next edition of the show will be held at TCF Center. Stay with us for more U.S. fastener market update and the trend in future exhibitions.

M-TECH OSAKA

2021/10/06-08

Open from October 6 to 8, the largest industrial show in west Japan closed with success by having 810 exhibitors to participate. The 3-day show had a total of 16.9 thousand visitors. Among 7 concurrent shows of the machinery and components industry, M-Tech was where Fastener World exhibited both online and onsite.

Fastener World’s onsite representative in Japan was handing out Fastener World Magazines, China Fastener World Magazines, and Hardware & Fastener Components Magazines to visitors. Taiwan has increasingly gained publicity in Japan recently and more Japanese people than ever are taking an interest in Taiwanese products, in addition to the synergy of an ever intimate bond between Taiwan and Japan. On the first day of the show, the onsite representative witnessed many Japanese fastener buyers dropping by to get their hands on Fastener World publications. The representative asked the buyers and found many of them were in urgent need of seeking overseas sources of purchase after the pandemic outbreak. Taiwan providing high quality fasteners at relatively competitive prices becomes one of their options to purchase from. Quite a few Japanese buyers visited Fastener World’s booth and stated that they sought Fastener World’s assistance to locate Taiwanese suppliers.

To answer the inquiries from onsite buyers, a Japanese-speaking Fastener World specialist was standing by online to work in tandem with the onsite representative through Zoom chat to help the buyers find Taiwanese suppliers. The specialist talked online with Japanese buyers each day of the show, including a large-scale industrial product distributor, an end-user company looking for thread rolling dies, a buyer for fastener manufacturing machines, and more. Based on what we experienced from this show, we have rounded up Japanese buyers’ criteria in selecting Taiwanese suppliers:

(1) Better to have JIS certificates and past work experience with Japanese companies.

(2) Ability to provide customized or standard products. (Standard products may have to be mass-produced.)

(3) Accepting to cooperate with Japan’s stringent quality check.

(4) The Japanese buyers look for long-term suppliers rather than a single purchase.

(5) Accepting large and/or small batch purchase orders designating box packaging or bag packaging, depending on products.

(6) The Japanese buyers prefer communicating with Japanese speaking contacts, or less preferably English speaking contacts. Few Japanese buyers employ Chinese speaking personnel to communicate on the purchase.

These criteria signifies that Taiwanese suppliers must regard Japanese buyers as a long-term partner if they want to tap into the Japanese supply chain. They have to try the best to provide Japanese or English support to reduce communication barriers. So far, Fastener World has successfully connected Japanese buyers to Taiwanese suppliers with remarkable results. We hope to continue to create business opportunities for Taiwanese and Japanese fastener industries in the next edition of M-Tech Osaka which will be open again on October 5 to 7, 2022.

INTERNATIONAL FASTENER EXPO

2021/09-22-23

The N. America’s largest industrial fastener, fastening tools, and related machinery B2B trade show, International Fastener Expo (IFE) was successfully held at Mandalay Bay Convention Center on Sep. 22-23 in 2021 and was the first physical event since it had been held virtually since 2020 due to the pandemic. The number of participants was around 2,000. Most of them were manufacturers, distributors, traders, and retailers from USA, Canada, and Mexico expecting to establish connection with potential buyers and expand sales. Exhibits included various sorts of fasteners for industrial, construction, aerospace, and automotive applications, electronics fasteners, special fasteners, tools & machinery, hand/power tools, and related solutions. Fastener World was also present with our latest issues (incl. Fastener World / China Fastener World/ Hardware & Fastener Components / Emerging Fastener Markets) to discover more local business opportunities for advertisers.

According to statistics of the organizer, 88% of attendees in 2021 were from USA and more than 61% of them were distributors of fasteners and/or related products. Over 70% of exhibitors said that IFE was a must-attend event every year. In addition to offering a networking place for visitors and suppliers, the organizer also held several sessions on surface finishes, post-covid supply chain, factory environment improvement, AI, e-commerce, pricing model, etc. in order to offer exhibitors and visiting buyers diverse attending experience. IFE will take place again on Oct. 18-19 (exhibition), 2022. For more exhibition info or latest U.S. market updates, please contact us at foreign@fastener-world.com.tw.

INTERNATIONAL FASTENER SHOW CHINA

2020/11/03-05

Witnessed by several well-known leaders from Chinese fastener industry and industry leading fastener associations, one of the grand events of Chinese fastener industry – International Fastener Show China, gave the opening ceremony on November 3rd at Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center. This 3-day event utilized the exhibiting floor of up to 40,000 sq. m and attracted the participation of around 600 domestic and overseas exhibitors booking nearly 1,650 standard booths. In addition to domestic Chinese exhibitors, a lot of foreign enterprises from Italy, Germany, Belgium, USA, S. Korea, and Japan were also present as exhibitors. Fastener World Magazine also exhibited at this show to reinforce the promotion for our customers in China shortly after the closure of Fastener Poland and offered local purchasers with demands the quickest and most effective way to sourcing what they need.

Two halls were open in 2020, including Hall #1 for equipment, wire & rods, molds & dies, and consumables and Hall #2 for finished fasteners. Various exhibits being displayed were: fastener equipment, molds & dies, consumables, standard fasteners, fasteners for specific industrial use, stamped parts and CNC machined parts, fastener materials, fastener e-commerce, etc. This event was not only a great platform for domestic and overseas fastener enterprises to learn high-performance technology and establish business communication, but also the best place for purchasers, distributors, traders, end-users, and manufacturers to learn new technology, discover new products, meet face to face, and seek business opportunities.

Besides the exhibition itself, fastener association reps conference, fastener economic trade and technical session, and thematic fastener technology seminar for discussing challenges the industry was facing and solutions as well as future expectations were arranged as well, in anticipation of helping exhibitors and buyers understand and learn from each other and facilitate a new wave of industrial upgrade.

FASTENER POLAND

2020/10/14-15

Fastener Poland, the largest international trade fair for fasteners and fixing technology in Central and Eastern Europe, was successfully given on October 14-15 at International Exhibition and Convention Centre EXPO Krakow, attracting the participation of more than 100 exhibitors from Poland, Germany, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Netherlands, and Taiwan. The trade fair’s exclusive sales rep in Taiwan, Fastener World, was not afraid of the pandemic and went forward to Poland in order to look for local potential buyers and promote our high-quality fastener related suppliers to the Central and Eastern European market.

Exhibits included: industrial fasteners and fixings, fastener manufacturing technology, construction fixings, assembly & installation systems, storage/distribution/factory equipment and relevant service. After the successful event in 2019, which drew the enthusiastic participation of domestic Polish and foreign exhibitors and visitors, the 4th international trade fair for fasteners and fixing technology still attracted a number of exhibitors to gain more exposure, draw the attention of buyers, and create more possibilities for commercial collaboration. Main visitors of this trade fair were purchasers and high-ranking manager and directors.

This is also the first international trade fair specifically dedicated to fasteners and fixing technology the team of Fastener World went to participate in the Central and Eastern European region in 2020. During the two-day event, our staff spent much time exchanging views with local purchasers and manufacturers, not only providing detailed fastener suppliers info to local buyers, but also helping us further understand the recent industrial development in the Central and Eastern European region. More importantly, we brought our latest publications and magazines directly to the hands of local buyers, creating more collaboration opportunities for both suppliers and buyers.

TAIWAN HARDWARE SHOW

2020/10/13-15

The world’s only successfully held hardware show in 2020, Taiwan Hardware Show, came to a perfect end on October 15th. Concurrently taking place with the International Metal Technology Taiwan (iMT) show, it was participated by more than 400 exhibitors booking around 900 standard booths and over 23,000 visitors. Fastener World marketing staff were also present to hand out our latest magazines with many potential buyers coming to our stand to ask for free copies and be the first among other competitors to explore the post-pandemic business opportunities.

Due to the pandemic, most international buyers couldn’t fly to Taiwan. However, the business partners and collaborative traders of these international leading brands successfully played a key role as their local purchase reps. In addition, as many companies came back to Taiwan to seek business opportunities, and many machinery and machine tool companies came to participate in this event, the dropping number of international visitors was almost covered, resulting in a still vibrant and busy trade show. As for the online business matching program of the show, over a hundred of virtual meetings were held, successfully matching over 55 international buyers from 37 countries during the 3-day event.

Several exhibitors also told Fastener World staff onsite that they already felt the gradual economic recovery, as their capacity had been almost fully utilized by orders continuously rushing in. As a result, it is optimistically estimated that the global economy may soon recover and they will adopt more active ways to grasp the world’s post-pandemic business opportunities.

FASTENERS WORLD MIDDLE EAST

2020/01/13-16

On January 13-16, 2020, Fasteners World Middle East was given at Expo Centre Sharjah and was enthusiastically attended by exhibitors specialized in a variety of fasteners, pipes & tubes, tools, metal processing machines, etc. and many distributors and buyers from the Middle East. In 2020, exhibitors from 35 countries/regions and visitors from 69 countries/regions participated at the Exhibition.

During the four days of exhibition, professional buyers from the Middle East and N. Africa (such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Egypt, and etc.), who were mostly from gas & oil, construction, machinery, electronics industries, gathered together at the venue. Many of them came to look for suppliers info of high-strength large-size screws and construction screws. As most of the local demands for fasteners were satisfied by imports, traders were, as a result, quite active. On the other hand, local buyers seemed to prefer collaborating with companies having local operations. The cross-country shipment costs were also one of the major concerns a few buyers took into account when they were seeking for collaboration.

One local fastener manufacturer told Fastener World at the Exhibition that “due to lots of benefits that was brought by infrastructure projects in many countries across the region, the regional market has continuously demonstrated fast growing demands and inquiries for fasteners in recent years. Fastener World’s Global Purchase Network is also a very useful online business to business platform to local buyers. Many buyers are also pleased to look for specific products through this platform and recognize it as a time and labor saving cross-country collaboration platform.”

Fastener World's Exhibition Footprints in 2021-2020