Robot exhibition attracts record number of buyers

This article was published by the Macroview Weekly on May 14, 2008. It reports that Taiwan's jointly held machine tool and robot shows attracted a total of 908 overseas buyers and 11,329 local buyers, respectively, representing a 28.6-percent growth and 51.5-percent growth year-on-year.

According to the organizer of the events, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the first-ever robot show in Taiwan, ROBOT Taiwan, originally scheduled as a section inside the Taipei CNC Machine Tool & Manufacturing Technology Show (MT Duo), was expanded as an independent exhibition held alongside the machine tools show from May 1 to 5, 2008.

Featuring 940 booths occupied by 219 local manufacturers and 70 international companies, the booth occupancy rate of the two shows grew by 11 percent compared with the MT Duo held in 2007.

According to TAITRA, Asian buyers represented the largest group of buyers, capturing 62.47 percent of the total number of overseas buyers. European buyers ranked second place, representing 15.25 percent of the total turnout.

Countries with the most buyers were Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, representing 16.54 percent, 8.89 percent and 7.87 percent of the total buyers, respectively.

This year's MT Duo displayed a diverse array of machinery types, such as design engineering, CNC machine tools and precision mold making, along with other machinery components and appliances.