WCN Spring 2009

Niehoff-News on the desk

Economic background to wire/Tube Southeast ASIA 13 th -15 th October 2009 Thailand

Both trade fairs welcomed 7,038 trade visitors from 65 countries, the majority fromthe Southeast Asian countries. Major industry figures praised the decision to move the wire/Tube Singapore exhibition to Bangkok in 2007: “Shifting the exhibitions to Thailand has definitely played a part in the outstanding quality and quantity of the visitors at the exhibition. Thailand is one of the most important industrial countries in Asia with a wide range of companies actively dealing in the wire and cable industries," said Ferruccio Bellina, President of Italian Wire Machinery Manufacturers Association (ACIMAF) and President of TKT Group SpA, Milano, Italy. “The internationality and the quality of the visitors were remarkable. We had visitors coming from not just the region but as far as Cairo and the Middle East. On the first day of the show, we noted visitors were from top management and this goes to show the importance of wire Southeast Asia,” said Dr Kurt Eder, President, Eder Engineering GmbH, President, Austrian Wire & Cable Machinery Manufacturers´ Association (AWCMA/VOEDKM). “Thailand is extremely important for both the wire and tube industries, which is why the IWMA supports its members, both local and worldwide, by ensuring that they have a dynamic forum in which to promote their technologies,” believes StephenWood, chairman of the InternationalWireMachineryAssociation (IWMA). The IWMA is themain industrypartner for wire Southeast Asia 2009 and will have an information booth at the exhibition, number HO1, located in a prime position immediately facing the main entrance. A number of wire and cable organisa- tions have taken advantage of the IWMA’s ‘Orchid’ exhibitor package to secure excellent locations for their booths at this year’s event and to benefit from the Association’s valuable support services. On the eve of the exhibition the IWMA is organising a one day technical conference at the BITEC facility as a supporting event for the exhibition (see page 8). For more information about IWMA services at wire Southeast Asia 2009 as well as practical advice and help please contact the Secretariat. The exhibition website is: www.wire-southeastasia.com

Southeast Asia continues to exhibit good economic development, with Vietnam leading with 8.5% growth in 2007. Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines all also recorded positive growth. GDP projections for these countries remain positive for the next few years. The Thai government is targeting investment of one trillion baht by 2009 from both domestic and foreign businesses. Both Vietnam and Malaysia are viewed as competitive investment destinations. Thailand is the world’s leading hard disc drive producer and a major exporter of appliances and electrical & electronic (E&E) products. Combined exports were valued at over $41 billion in 2006. Vietnam has plans for as many as 68 new industrial parks and expansions of existing ones. Malaysia’s E&E sector also continues to perform strongly and accounts for 40% of the country’s overall manufacturing output with electronic product exports valued at an estimated $80 billion in 2007. Automotive industries in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia continue to grow in importance as end users of wire, cable, tube and pipe products. In 2007, Thailand manufactured close to 1.3million light vehicles, forecast togrow to over 2 million by 2012. Indonesia has emerged as an export centre for multi- purpose vehicles. Malaysia’s automotive clusters are to be developed at several locations and local production of parts and components is set to rise. The Thai Board of Investment (BOI) aims to promote the upstream steel sector, turning Thailand into ASEAN’s hub of high-quality steel. Vietnam has plans for a major steel complex with a capacity of 7.5 million tonnes per year starting in 2011. Taiwanese companies will invest $6 billion in the plant. Malaysia plans to expand its steel industry through investing around $13 billion to support the needs of the metal fabrication, engineering and construction industries. Thailand is one of the largest petro-chemical producers in the world and continues to invest in new facilities, with at least sixmajor plants set to start up in 2010. The successful inauguration of wire and Tube Southeast ASIA 2007 attracted a combinedparticipationof 381 exhibiting companies from 30 countries.

The latest issue of ‘ Niehoff-News ’is now available, containing articles dealing with China and India. The Niehoff group has been successful in both countries for more than 30 years and expects a further growing demand for its technology. Niehoff is among market leaders in the field of rod breakdown and multiwire drawing machines. The company has also successfully introduced multiwire and super fine wire drawing tech- nology tomanywire and cable factories in China. Machines from Niehoff also play a very important role in the enamelled wire production. Articles include the products exhibited at the wire China 2008 and at Wire & Cable India 2008 trade fairs in Shanghai and in Mumbai by Niehoff and the Niehoff Shanghai RepresentativeOffice and Niehoff of India respectively. In an interview, Mr Deepak Chhabria, managing director of Finolex Cables Limited, one of India’s leading cable manufacturers, talks about the wire and cable branch in India, while in the company portrait Fushi Copperweld, in particular the Fushi International (Dalian) Bimetallic Cable Co Ltd is presented. The company is China’s leading producer of bimetallic wire products, principally copper-clad aluminium and copper-clad steel. Short news articles and summaries in Chinese and Russian are also part of the newspaper. ‘ Niehoff-News ’ is published twice a year and can be obtained from Niehoff headquarters in Germany or any Niehoff subsidiary or service office all over the world. It is also available from the website.

Maschinenfabrik Niehoff GmbH & Co KG – Germany

Fax : +49 9122 977 155 Email : info@niehoff.de Website : www.niehoff.de

Niehoff Endex North America Inc – USA Fax : +1 856 467 0584 Email : sales@niehoffendex.com Website : www.niehoff-usa.com

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WIRE & CABLE NEWS • Issue N° 40 – Spring 2009 • www.iwma.org