Machinery makers buoyant as Hanover Fair opens

Apr 4, 2011, 16:52 GMT

A woman plays with a robot made by French company Aldebaran Robotics in Hanover, Germany, 04 April 2011. The Hanover Fair, the world\'s biggest industrial trade show, opened to business visitors in Germany on 04 April with exhibitors buoyant about sales prospects. The five-day trade fair in Hanover has some 6,500 companies exhibiting high-technology coatings, gearboxes, pumps and a huge variety of electrical components ranging from rocker switches to giant transformers. EPA/JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE

Hanover, Germany - The Hanover Fair, the world's biggest trade show for machinery, opened to business visitors in Germany Monday with exhibitors buoyant about sales prospects.

VDMA, the German mechanical engineering industry association, said machinery makers were optimistic despite the risks of an economic slowdown in Japan after its earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster last month.

German companies had booked 38 per cent more global orders in February than a year ago, VDMA reported. The group expected the sector to expand its output this year in Germany alone by 14 per cent.

The five-day trade fair in Hanover has 6,500 companies exhibiting robots, high-technology coatings, gearboxes, pumps and a huge variety of electrical components ranging from rocker switches to giant transformers.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon toured the event at the start of the day accompanied by two German cabinet ministers. France holds 'partner' rank this year among the 65 nations participating.

Germany dominates the fair, not just because it is the host country, but because it is a world leader in machinery.

Winston Wen of Chinese robotics maker Suzhou Ompa Industrial Robots called it a mental advantage for the Germans.

'They are very capable and focused. We won't be able to catch up with them for 100 years,' he said in an interview.

However he was not modest about his product, a van-sized robot that was lifting and manipulating 250-kilogram pallets of bottled drinks. He holds several Chinese patents. His company is based at Suzhou, just outside Shanghai.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had inaugurated the event the previous evening at a Hanover theatre, but was not on hand for the booth openings because she is recovering from a knee operation last week.

The disaster in Japan was a constant discussion point at the fair, with many German industrialists saying they support a rapid closedown of Germany's nuclear generation sector, provided there are no electricity shortages along the way.

Hans-Peter Keitel, head of the German Industry Federation, said: 'They have to say what will replace it.'

At conferences, industrial leaders warned that German conservationists will have to step back and allow changes to the countryside if Germany is to install wind turbines, energy storage reservoirs and high-voltage cross-country lines for new power systems.

Keitel also issued a warning about the world economic recovery, saying, 'Japan has shown how fragile the system as a whole is. We are not in full-speed-ahead mode yet.'

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