Slump in Hanover Fair exhibitors

15 April 2004

HANOVER – The world’s premiere showcase for industry and technology, the Hanover Fair, will see a sharp downturn this year in exhibitors, mirroring the overall uncertain economic climate, officials said previewing the giant show.

The Hanover Fair 2004, running 19 to 24 April will see only 5,040 exhibitors renting around 151,000 square metres of floor space, reported Sepp D. Heckmann, chief executive of the fair company Deutsche Messe AG.

In 2003, the number of exhibitors was 40 percent higher at 6,240, with floor space then at around 200,000 square metres. In 2002 the Hanover Fair had 6,470 exhibitors.

Heckmann said the figures for this and previous years were not completely comparable due to a different marketing concept by Deutsche Messe. But company sources said the feeble state of the economy was regarded as the chief cause.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, visiting his home town, will officially open the Hanover Fair at ceremonies Sunday evening, with the fairgrounds then opening doors to the public the next day for a six-day run.

Dietmar Harting, head of the German electrical engineering federation ZVEI, said this year’s Hanover Fair could be seen particularly as a “barometer” for the business mood in the country, with the fair taking place at a “highly sensitive moment”.

Harting said there were signs that the economy was starting to pick up, and he hoped that the fair would provide some “economy- boosting elements”.

This year’s fair is organised into eight trade exhbitions covering such broad industrial areas as factory automation, energy, surface technology, subcontracting, digital-based manufacturing, microtechnology and research.

Parallel to the exhibitions will be a mammoth programme of experts’ symposia, panel discussions and special presentations by companies and exhibitors.

DPA
Subject: German news