2013 Korea Metal Week grandly kicked off on Oct. 16th, 2013 in Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX), Seoul, South Korea. ChinaFastener Magazine (Booth No. C164) attended in it as a supportive media.

Korea Metal Week, organized by Korea Trade Fairs Ltd, is held every two year since 1989. It is the biggest metal industry and machinery fair in South Korea, comprising of seven shows. They are Fastener & Wire Korea, Die Casting & Foundry Korea, Automobile & Machine Parts Korea, Press & Forging Korea, Tube & Pipe Korea, Metal Surface Treatment Korea, and Korea Composite Show.

It is learned that 2013 Korea Metal Week attracted 215 exhibitors, of which, 149 exhibitors were from South Korea, 50 exhibitors from mainland China and the rest from Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Denmark, Japan, and Ukraine. In terms of fasteners, there were about 25 Chinese fastener companies exhibiting in the show Fastener & Wire Korea, including Eagle Metal, Shanghai Rivet, Shanghai Jingyang, Pinghu Kangchengda, Ningbo Exact, Boito Metal, Ningbo Weifeng, Ningbo Jinding, Dongguan Gubang, Jiangyin Guo Xiang, Wenzhou Longwan Shengjia, Shanghai Fastenique and so on.      

Worth to mention, Korea Metal Week is concurrently held with 4 major trade fairs specialized in machine (KOMAF), tools (Tool tech), autoparts (KOAASHOW), and welding (Welding Korea), which comprised as Korea Industry Fair. It is expected that there will be around 130,000 buyers to visit during the four days exhibition.  

2012 South Korea’s fastener output reached 950,000 tons and was in the value of USD 3.65 billion. Automobile industry, construction industry, and electronics industry were the three largest consumer groups of fasteners, demanding more than 700,000 tons (73.4%), 130,000 tons (13.8%) and 10,000 tons respectively, and the rest 110,000 tons went into other industries.

In regard to import, South Korea imported USD 450 million fasteners in 2012, up 2.2% in comparison with 2011 (2011: USD 440 million). The fasteners imported from mainland China, USA, Germany, and Japan were USD 160 million, 102 million, 36 million, and 32 million, respectively, with such fasteners shipped from mainland China taking the highest share of 36.9%. In regard to export, South Korea exported USD 607 million fasteners in 2012, up 25.1% while compared with 2011 (2011: USD 480 million).

From above statistics, it is easy to find that Mainland China is the major supplying country of South Korea’s fasteners. And the holding of Korea Metal Week plays an important role in strengthening the communication and trading between South Korea and Mainland China.

Some fastener exhibitors from mainland China: