2014 Korea Metal Week grandly opened on Sep. 16th, 2014 in Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX), Seoul, South Korea. ChinaFastener Magazine (Booth No. 5g 190) 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. This year 320 exhibitors participated in this event and 31 of them came from mainland China. The rest of exhibitors were from Korea, Chinese Taipei, Germany, the USA, Switzerland etc. Chinese exhibitors were relatively fewer than the last year. 50 exhibitors from mainland China exhibited in 2013.

About 89 exhibitors exhibited in Automobile & Machine Parts Korea. And 58 exhibitors gathered in Fastener & Wire Korea.15 fastener companies from mainland China exhibited, including Shanghai Rivet, Qiang Xin, Wenzhou Taihe, Hebei Fuao, Baoji Qicheng, Hangzhou Dingyuan, Ningbo Exact, Ningbo Jinding, Eagle Hardware, Shanghai Jingyang, Haiyan Sanma, Ningbo Hexin, Kinfast Hardware etc. Many famous brands also appeared such as Atotech, Hyodong etc.

Atotech

Hyodong

Shanghai Rivet

Wenzhou Taihe

Qiang Xin

Hebei Fuao

Baoji Qicheng

Hangzhou Dingyuan

Shanghai Jingyang

Ningbo Jinding

Haiyan Sanma

Being as the supportive media partner, representative of CFM distributed the latest issue of ChinaFastener Magazine at scene and it was very much welcomed by the international buyers. They were quite interested about the buyer’s guide part. The visitors were fewer at the opening day and today there are much more buyers. As the organizer put, this exhibition will be held once a year from this year on. The next Korea Metal Week will be held in Sep 2015

Worth to mention, Korea Metal Week is concurrently held with 4 major trade fairs specialized in machine (KOMAF), tools (Tool tech), auto parts (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.

In 2013 South Korea’s fastener output reached 970,000 tons Automobile industry, construction industry, and electronics industry were the three largest consumer groups of fasteners, demanding more than 750,000 tons (77.4%), 130,000 tons (13.5%) and 20,000 tons respectively, and the rest 70,000 tons went into other industries.

As for the import, South Korea imported USD 520 million fasteners in 2013, up 16.7% in comparison with 2012 (2012: USD 450 million). The fasteners imported from mainland China, USA, Germany, and Chinese Taipei were USD 180 million, 130 million, 49 million, and 25 million, respectively, with such fasteners shipped from mainland China taking the highest share of 34.6%. In regard to export, South Korea exported USD 670 million fasteners in 2013, up 11.3% while compared with 2012 (2011: USD 607 million).

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