New Delhi, February 7, 2013: From the looks of it, the first ACMA Automechanika New Delhi trade fair seems to struck the right chord with the organisers, exhibitors and also visitors. The four-day show, which was inaugurated by Praful Patel, minister for Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, government of India, is the first ever trade exhibition in India, specialised and dedicated to the auto component and aftermarket industry.

The sold-out show, organised by ACMA and Messe Frankfurt, sees participation from 258 exhibitors from 12 countries and regions including five international pavilions of China, Germany, Taiwan, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Speaking exclusively to Autocar Professional, Michael Johannes, vice-president, Brand Management Automechanika, Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH, said: “We are proud that we have organised the first ACMA Automechanika 2013. We already have had a lot of business visitors on the first day. Automechanika is the main brand in the aftermarket and is the ultimate B2B platform. We are doing 12 shows worldwide and we are happy to be in India. We think there is a lot more potential in the Indian auto component industry as it has been doing well in the last few years and the quality of the products is also improving.”

When queried as to why there aren’t very many large players at the inaugural show, he said: “Big players like Delphi and ZF are there. This is the first show which has people coming to see what the show is all about, about the organising levels and type of visitors. We know that a lot of big companies are coming here to visit the first show and they are really keen to come for the next edition. I think we can grow the show tremendously in future years. The next show is in February 2013 in New Delhi.”

He added, “We had asked for more exhibition space this year but unfortunately the venue could not provide us with that. We have another 100 companies who had applied for the first show but could not participate.”

Photograph (L-R): Michael Johannes, VP, Brand Management Automechanika, Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH, Praful Patel, minister for Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, Surinder Kanwar, president ACMA, Deep Kapuria and Arvind Kapur at the inauguration today.