Chongqing - EMO Hannover is the world's leading trade fair for production technology and will be held in Hannover, Germany, from September 18 to 23, 2023. The trade fair showcases the latest in international production technology and provides a glimpse into future developments. The world tour press conference was recently held in Southwest China's Chongqing.

"We are convinced that this leading trade show can make an important contribution to the progress of industry in China," said Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director at EMO organizer VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association), in Germany, on the occasion of a five-day hybrid press tour through five Chinese cities at the middle of March. China is one of around 40 event countries where the EMO World Tour is making a stop in the first half of 2023. 

The Chinese economy will gain momentum again in 2023. This will have positive effects on the demand for production technology. Even now, China is the largest market in the world. The economic researchers at Oxford Economics - the VDW’s forecasting partner - expect the most important user industries for production technology in China to invest over 1 trillion US dollars in 2023 and in 2024, almost 1.1 trillion US dollars. Most of the money will be raised by the Chinese machine tools sector and the electrical industry. "At EMO Hannover, those responsible from Chinese industry, government, and investment promotion institutions can obtain targeted information on which technologies can be used to implement the planned projects," explains Schäfer. 

The last EMO Hannover 2019 already attracted 3,300 experts from China. As a result, they formed the second-largest group of visitors from abroad. In total, there were around 120,000 visitors from 149 countries. Of these, 51 percent traveled from outside Germany.

Future insights address the current challenges facing the industry

Production technology is in the middle of the industrial transformation process but is also part of the solution. This is the theme of EMO Hannover 2023 with the so-called Future Insights. The Future of Business focuses on new markets, new business models, opportunities, and potentials of an innovation culture in the company, the introduction of agile methods and the development of methodological knowledge, and change of structures and working methods. In this respect, EMO Hannover is a major knowledge platform, not only for technology but also for organization, strategies, and methods in companies. 

The Future of Sustainability in Production addresses the integration of sustainability, one of the most pressing issues these days, already in the planning of investments. "Preventive approaches, solutions and concepts for resource-conserving and climate-neutral production and factory planning, circular economy in production, circular value creation, energy-efficient production, sustainable supply chains, and safe workplace design will be presented at the trade show," says Schäfer, describing EMO Hannover's contribution. In addition to the numerous individual exhibitors presenting solutions in this area, the Future of Sustainability in the Production Area also closely examines production and links approaches from science with practical implementation. The focus is on energy efficiency, a topic that has been neglected until now but still holds a great deal of potential.

China already has a large machine tools industry. It is in first place for international production with a volume of nearly 26 billion US dollars. About 20 percent of this is exported. 

However, in the future, China wants to export more and serve the international market with higher-quality products. 

Accordingly, it is important for Chinese suppliers of production technology to present themselves at international trade shows such as EMO Hannover. Currently, more than 100 exhibitors are already on board, who once again want to take the opportunity to show the flag after two years with practically no trade fairs. A total of more than 1,300 exhibitors from 42 countries have registered so far. 

In 2021, Chinese consumption of machine tools, an indicator of the development of industrial production, amounted to around 28 billion US dollars. About 28 percent of China's demand is imported. The main suppliers are Japan, Germany, the Taiwan region, South Korea, and Switzerland. Currently, more than 760 exhibitors are coming to EMO Hannover 2023 from the five countries mentioned above alone. In total, 1,350 exhibitors from 42 countries have registered so far.

This means that Chinese visitors have an extensive range of products and services from their top suppliers along the entire value chain and, in addition, a wide range of products and services from many other countries that are worth checking out. "In order to compare and evaluate them directly and, if necessary, also to find competent partners, EMO Hannover is exactly the right platform because it is broadly positioned along the entire value chain and shows the complete global range," concludes Schäfer.