VETIS plays matchmaker for the Italian parts market

The annual VETIS exhibiton was held on February 13-14 in Turin, Italy, where automotive buyers met potential new suppliers from Italy. This event, held since 1994, is part of a concerted effort by Turin to promote itself as one of the important centres of European automotive and mobility technology. It is organised by the Torino Chamber of Commerce, the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) and Piemonte Agency for Investments, Export and Tourism.

This year's VETIS included interactions between 45 buyers from 15 countries – including Brazil, Canada, China, India, Iran, Russia, Turkey and the EU nations – and 160 Italian suppliers. VETIS also included industrial vehicles, motorcycles and railways this time around.

The partner country for 2008 was Turkey, which kicked off the proceedings with a seminar called ‘The opportunities of Turkey, a strategic partner’.

Experts working for the most important Turkish automotive associations and industries introduced the sector and gave delegates ideas about the business opportunities the country offers.

The seminar also provided an overview of the growth of the Turkish economy and of its automotive industry. Automotive production in Turkey is growing quickly and in 2006 it set a record with 990,000 vehicles being produced by 16 companies, including those producing cars, pick-ups, industrial and CVs, agricultural machinery and buses.

Unique opportunity

For buyers, VETIS was a unique opportunity to interact with Italian suppliers who have a wide range of capabilities in the area of production technology as well as research and development. As in past years, buyers met with suppliers that they had pre-selected on the base of their profiles.

The buyers – which were identified by the Italian Trade Commission foreign offices – were interested in areas like purchasing, technology, R&D, systems managers, and Tier 1 automotive and industrial suppliers. Among the Indian buyers present at the event were Maruti Suzuki, electric scooter maker Electrotherm India (which markets under the Yo Bykes brand) and Vijayjyot Seats, who were all looking at sourcing opportunities.

The venue for these meetings was the Palaisozaki centre, which was one of the key venues created for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games that were held in Turin. Italian suppliers at the event were showcasing their expertise in areas as diverse as design and engineering, styling and prototyping, tooling and equipment, production plants components, sub-contracting, logistics and services.

The 110 suppliers taking part in VETIS were all from the Piemonte region, which is the heart of the Italian automotive industry and home of Fiat Auto. The area has a complete range of enterprises, professionals and skills that service the sector. In fact, the automotive sector in the region consists of about 1.400 companies, 45 percent of the Italian total, and employs a workforce of over 140,000. From 2005 to 2006, the turnover of the Piedmontese automotive industry grew by 8.2 percent to a total of 21 billion euros, which is 54 percent of the Italian total.