With South Africa strongly focused on increasing manufacturing and growing its export market, it is important for local companies in the metallurgical sectors to apply for incentives being offered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to showcase their products on an international stage at four German metallurgy trade fairs, stresses DTI export promotion executive assistant Hloniphile Sibanda.

At a breakfast presentation in Kempton Park on Thursday, the department announced that it would aid South African small, medium-sized and micro enterprises (SMMEs) through its export marketing and investment assistance (EMIA) National Pavilions programme to showcase their products at this year’s Gifa, Metec, Thermprocess and Newcast (GMTN) trade show from June 16 to 20.

“GMTN is on the DTI’s calendar of trade shows that South African business has to infiltrate this year. In the past, the South African metallurgical industry attracted about 570 highly-qualified trade visitors from South Africa to Düsseldorf and this has placed South Africa among the forerunners in the industry internationally,” she highlighted.

The DTI, through the EIMA, would make provisional arrangements and bear the cost of an economy class return airfare ticket up to R17 000 for SMMEs.

These enterprises were also allowed to claim a subsistence of R2 300 a day from the DTI. Also, transportation of samples of products would be taken care of by the department as it would appoint freight forwarders and pay certain costs relating to the consolidation of exhibition material, as well as transport from the consolidation point to the exhibition and back to the consolidation point in South Africa.

The DTI encouraged businesses to start applying for these incentives immediately to ensure their presence at the GMTN trade show.

Organised by the Germany-based trade fair organisers Messe Düsseldorf, GMTN MD Friedrich-Georg Kehrer said the organisers were expecting about 80 000 people from across the country to attend the quadrennial trade show.

Hosted since the 1960s, Gifa was said to be the oldest of the trade shows and covered the foundry plants and equipment, die-casting machines and melting operations market.

Metec catered for plant manufacturers as it showcased suppliers of plant, equipment for ironmaking, steelmaking and nonferrous metal production. It also provided a platform for casting and pouring molten steel, as well as rolling and steel mills.

Thermprocess was the second-largest trade show after Gifa and showcased industrial furnaces, industrial heat treatment plants and thermal processes.

Newcast focused on research information, offering direct contact with industry experts as well as providing insight into technical and scientific progress that had been achieved in the foundry industry.

“Combining all four trade shows into one big show has worked well for all the industries involved. As a result, interest by industry personnel globally has grown [and] with every trade show, the number of people attending has increased,” Kehrer noted.