Bauma Africa: 14.700 visitors from 38 countries

Bauma Africa 2013:

• 14,700 visitors from more than 110 countries
• Biggest industry event for the sector in Africa
• 754 exhibitors from 38 countries

Bauma Africa has entered the African market with a bang: The first edition of this International Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines and Construction Vehicles took up 60,000 square meters of exhibition space (gross) – 40,100 square meters net – which makes it the biggest industry event for the sector in Africa.

Elaine Crewe, CEO of MMI South Africa, is overwhelmed by the results: “This is huge for South Africa and the industry here. With its premiere, bauma Africa has immediately become the largest show for the construction machinery, building material machines and mining machines sector. The feedback we have received is just fantastic.” Lawrence Peters, Chairman of CONMESA (Construction and Mining Equipment Suppliers‘ Association), confirms the outstanding success of the show: “bauma Africa exceeded our expectations by far – we are extremely satisfied. This show is what we wanted, it is for the industry.”

It has been a really, really good show. The quality of the visitors is extremely good. We sold loads of machinery during the show. I’m overwhelmed with the response.

– Ludwig Geyser, CEO at Putzmeister

14,700 registered trade visitors from more than 110 countries came to this year’s premiere of bauma Africa, which took place at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg from September 18 to 21, 2013. 84 percent of the visitors came from South Africa, six percent from other African countries and a further ten percent from other continents. The top ten visitor countries were South Africa, Mozambique, Germany, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Italy, Namibia, United Kingdom and India – in that order. Gary Bell, CEO at Bell Equipment, states that bauma Africa “worked very well for us. We are very pleased with the number of visitors and their quality was good. It seems that we are going to have a good output.”

Furthermore, bauma Africa also succeeded in effectively offering the mining sector a perfect platform, as Glenn Schoeman, Vice President at Sandvik South Africa, points out: “This show has been a long time coming and not exhibiting here is a big mistake. We had only quality visitors from countries we needed and sold several machines right here during the show.” Anton Wheeler, Managing Director at AARD, confirms this also for the underground mining: “We presented new products here and received very good feedback as well as most effective contacts. bauma Africa is of a better quality than other shows.”

All in all, 754 exhibitors – 123 from South Africa and 631 that are headquartered abroad – from 38 countries attended bauma Africa. Besides South Africa, the top exhibitor countries were China, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Spain, the UK and the US. Quintin Booysen, Marketing & Sales Manager at PMSA, sums it up: “We really are beyond our expectations. Next time we will be back with twice the space because I’m sure that there will be twice as many visitors. Those who missed out missed an exceptionally good show.”