15th International Trade Fair for Used Machinery and Equipment
Messe Karlsruhe, Germany – 22 to 24 April 2009


    • 514 exhibitors from 28 countries
    • 9,187 visitors from 112 countries
    • Demand intact despite financial crisis
    • Exhibitors expect good post-trade fair business
    • RESALE 2010 from 21 – 23 April in Karlsruhe

 

For three days, visitors from all over the world frequented the stands of the 514 exhibitors at RESALE 2009 in Karlsruhe. With 9,187 visitors from 112 countries, the attendance fell just short of last year's outstanding level. The serious economic difficulties in a number of the Eastern European countries that traditionally provide large numbers of visitors have left their mark. Noticeably fewer business people attended from the Ukraine than in recent years, for example. However, considering the turbulence in global markets, the number of visitors at the event is an excellent result. Approx. 65 percent of buyers travelled to the event from abroad. Nearly 70 percent have either purchased machines already or will order them after the trade fair. Exhibitors' expectations were surpassed in every sector. The exhibiting companies reported doing good business and making highly qualified contacts. Many companies are expecting significant deals after RESALE.

 The market is starting to move
"The used machinery sector is a stabilising factor in the dramatic setting of a shrinking economy," is the analysis of Jens Nagel, Managing Director of the Federation of the German Export Trade (BDEx) in Berlin. "While businesses are struggling elsewhere, demand in the used machinery market is the same as usual." Nagel adds that RESALE 2009 was a lively trade fair and notes the buzz of activity in the exhibition halls. "There was a strong demand for information, especially regarding the options for alternative sources of financing," he says referring to the fact that money is in shorter supply due to the difficulties in obtaining bank financing. In any case, the demand for used machines is still there: At the BDEx stand, there was noticeable demand from West Africa, Central Asia and the Near and Middle East. "From the last of these in particular, there are a lot of buyers searching for equipment for developing infrastructure," reports Nagel. "For example, there are a large number of projects in Northern Iraq."

Willi Schneegaß, President of the Association of the German Wholesale Dealers in Machinery and Tools (FDM) in Bonn sees a very positive development at RESALE. "The market is starting to move!" Schneegaß is also the Managing Director of IProS, an exhibitor of cleaning technology and machine tools. The entrepreneur says it is important to finally get the economic problems that are being so widely discussed out of
people's heads. "There have always been ups and downs," argues Willi Schneegaß. "And over the last few years of plenty we have been able to build up financial reserves." Many companies have not collapsed from "one hundred to zero", but "only from 150 to 100." So the demand is still present, sometimes even for impulse purchases: one German visitor to the trade fair originally intended to buy a metal working machine at RESALE. At the IProS stand he saw a steam cleaning system and bought it for just under 10,000 Euros.

 The right customers were there
There were satisfied faces at the European Association of Machine Tool Merchants (EAMTM). "Our exhibiting members have told me that their results for the trade fair were better than they had expected beforehand," explains André Skenazi. "That is also a reflection of the outstanding visitor quality," says the General Secretary of the EAMTM highlighting the good deals completed at RESALE 2009. "Anyone investing in a trip to a trade fair in the current climate really does want to buy machinery." Christina Enderbury from the British branch of the EAMTM confirms this. "The right customers were there," she reports. "As a result, our British exhibitors from the EAMTM were also able to record some good deals." The Dutch Used Machinery Association DUMA referred to around 100 targeted contacts as its "harvest" from RESALE. "Two of the major areas of visitor interest were food processing machines and packaging machinery," said Gerwin Klok assessing the event. "Geographically, there were a lot of enquiries from Iran, Iraq and Africa," says the Managing Director of DUMA. "These business enquiries are being forwarded to our members."

RESALE exhibitor Hans-Jürgen Geiger was very pleased with the response and the deals done at the trade fair. "One Turkish company bought a CNC circular grinder from us," beamed the machinery dealer from Metzingen. "He paid us 35,000 Euros for the eleven-year old product made by Studer." Another sale is as good as completed, the sale of a hydraulic press built in 1982 – to Hungary. "Provided that the financing works out," cautions Geiger, who invited many other potential customers to his company headquarters in Metzingen. On each day of RESALE, more than ten people spent time in his warehouse, with visitors from Iran showing special interest. A major problem, however, is the embargo, which makes the direct export of the machines to the country virtually impossible.

 Exceeding our expectations
"Attendance at the trade fair in Karlsruhe exceeded our expectations, the organising team had obviously been working very hard as usual," says a delighted Friedhelm Dörscheln, Managing Director of Universal Plast Maschinen GmbH (UPM) in Meinerzhagen. His company has been a RESALE exhibitor from the very beginning in 1995. "Many of the visitors were well prepared and came to our stand with very specific requirements," he notes. On the first evening of the trade fair he sold an Arburg injection moulding machine for 9,000 Euros to a Romanian company that was just starting up production. "The buyer was wandering around our stand for a day looking curiously at the machine," explains Dörscheln. "Compared to the new price of 30,000 Euros, the Romanian entrepreneur was able to make a saving of about 70 percent." UPM has lined up more deals for the period after RESALE, some of them large. These include discussions with a potential Russian customer. "We had already made contact before the event and then met for the first time on the stand."

Other exhibiting companies such as the supplier of wood working machines, Egid Münch, were very taken with the event. "We will certainly participate again at RESALE 2010," predicts Arnulf Vath, Managing Director. Günther Körber from BIS Industrieservice Mitte reported a sale to the University of Karlsruhe, "The university purchased a mobile stirring apparatus container for 4,000 Euros." However, German exhibitors were not the only ones to be in good spirits on their homeward journeys. Many of the exhibitors from other countries were equally pleased with their results from the trade fair. "Our stand was constantly full," says Patrick Kazi-Tani, the supplier of wood working machines based in France. "RESALE was an enormous success for us." The French dealer Ermo sold several machines in Karlsruhe. "Our sales directly at the trade fair were worth around 150,000 Euros," summarises Eric Rossero, Managing Director of Ermo. "We sold a number of presses among other things." His customers were from Morocco, Iran and Macedonia. The French company also left the event with a large collection of business cards, which could lead to further lucrative sales. And Vince Blumberg from Adams Machinery Company, participating at his third RESALE, was able to sell two machines – a gear cutting machine and a lathe.

 New technologies for Africa
A large delegation from Africa visited RESALE on the very first day of the trade fair. It had travelled to Germany on the initiative of the German-African Business Association. Another African entrepreneur, Babacar Diop from Senegal, is a RESALE veteran. This time he brought several high-ranking government representatives with him who gathered information about every aspect of investment opportunities in a number of sectors. Used machines are in great demand in Africa, not least for financial reasons. Many banks in Senegal are subsidiaries of troubled international institutions and this makes financing difficult. This is why private and state institutions rely to amuch greater extent on machines in the second-hand market, which can be paid for out of equity capital.

Demand for medical-technical systems that are several years old is increasing in Africa, especially as the private sector is becoming ever more active. "In Europe people think of these machines and instruments as used," says Babacar Diop, comparing the differing attitudes on the continents. "But for us these are new technologies."

Benz & Hilgers also reported a large number of African visitors on their stand. "In previous years, most of our interested visitors were from North Africa," recalls Gabriele Konder, Area Sales Manager of Benz & Hilgers. "This time there were noticeably more from Central Africa. And the demand was not just for individual elements but whole production lines, e.g. for processing butter," she notes. The supplier of packaging machinery from Neuss reports that business is flourishing at the moment. "We have recently had a boom in new machines," says Gabriele Konder. "Now the used machine market could take off." Surprisingly, she noticed one country that is generally associated with investment in new machinery. "Used machinery has become a real trend in France," she reports, "probably because people are investing more cautiously." According to the official visitor statistics for the trade fair, buyers from France were the second largest group from industrialised countries after the Italians.

 The market is well-supplied
Many German entrepreneurs also used RESALE as a buying opportunity. "As the owner of a small medium-sized company, I do not have the money for new machines," reasons Hans-Peter Boyke, Managing Director of Boyke Wear Technology (BWT). "Moreover, our machines do not run continuously because we manufacture a lot of individualised products." New machines would barely pay for themselves. "The market is well-supplied," says a delighted Boyke, who was looking for a worm grinding machine in Karlsruhe. The deal will only be signed and sealed after the trade fair as the entrepreneur from Lindlar near Cologne first wants to compare prices and do some hard bargaining. BWT is involved in the regeneration of so-called "worms" and cylinders. Recently, the order book of the company from the Rhineland has been improving again. This is partly due to the German car scrappage scheme. It is boosting business for important companies in the region – such as the Ford factories. At the same time, investment in new machines is falling, which is stimulating the market for spare parts.

While a number of companies are profiting from the second economic stimulus package, few benefits have been felt yet in the construction sector. "We only expect its effects to be noticed in 2010," emphasises Andreas Wehner. "But companies tend to need our smaller tools when renovating buildings," predicts the Branch Manager of Putzmeister Concrete Pumps for the Rhine-Ruhr area. Nevertheless, for the RESALE exhibitor and manufacturer of concrete pumps, the German construction market is still quite good although the falling prices for used machines are a minor worry. But Putzmeister can even see the positive side of this development. "It stimulates demand," observes Andreas Wehner. "And more importantly it gives us a foot in the door of the international business in industrialising countries – so we reach countries where there is simply no market for new machinery anyway." He fully expects strong post-trade fair business after RESALE – after all there were a lot of enquiries "including many from Iran, Iraq and the Arabian region."

 "We met long-standing customers"
CHG-Meridian Deutsche Computer Leasing AG from Mörfelden near Frankfurt is also focusing on the period after the trade fair. "Each year 600,000 machines are returned to us as leasing contracts expire," explains Ralf Matthias. "Workstation-PCs, laptops, servers, mainframes and much more," the Manager of Brokerage at CHG-Meridian runs down the list. "These computers are renovated and then marketed world-wide as second-hand machines." The company was represented for the first time at RESALE – with the aims of building and maintaining contacts and initiating long-term partnerships. "We met long-standing customers at our stand," says Ralf Matthias, "from Romania, for example." Quick one-off deals were not at the forefront of the company's thinking. "We are looking for commercial intermediaries, who can upgrade our products with software, for example, and sell them locally." This procedure removes the problem of warranties, which would be difficult to implement in the markets where they are sold. The most important markets for the IT leasing company include Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, North Africa and the Arabian region.

This matches the origins of many RESALE visitors. The most heavily represented foreign country in terms of visitors was Iran with 698 buyers, followed by Russia, India and Belarus. The Ukraine only occupied the No. 5 position (last year it was No. 1). In positions 6 to 10 were Iraq, Uganda, Egypt, Italy and Ecuador respectively. There was strong growth in attendances from Kosovo, China, Syria, Algeria and Uzbekistan. To a great extent, visitor interest corresponded to the products on display. Machines were exhibited in 23 categories at RESALE – for every sector. Metal working machines were once again the largest segment, followed by plastics and rubber processing machines. "Motive power engineering, mechanical handling, construction machinery, food processing machines and packaging machinery und commercial vehicles were strongly represented," explains RESALE organiser Florian Hess, Managing Director of Hess GmbH in Weingarten/Baden, "as well as plant and machinery for waste disposal and recycling."

 Transactions at a reasonable level
The ground conveyors occupied an enormous area on the "biggest open-air site of all time". Right on time as the trade fair opened, the Dutch RESALE exhibitor BS Forklifts was able to report the completion of the first smaller deals. "Three sales: two customers from Germany and one from Iraq," says Michel Kremer. The fact that visitors targeted the stand and headed for it so quickly was also due to their thorough preparation. Other suppliers of forklifts confirmed that the buyers knew exactly what they wanted. "Generally, the used machinery business is running at a reasonable level at the moment," analyses Henning Walther from the manufacturer Jungheinrich. "We are doing the same amount of business as last year." The company received various enquiries from the Near and Middle East as well as from the entire Black Sea region at RESALE. There is demand in many regions around the world, but financing is occasionally a difficulty. Henning Walther has spotted one trend in the financial crisis: "Customers who previously only bought new machines are now prepared to think about buying used – including currently an ever growing number of German companies."

Sven Kaulbach's assessment runs in a similar vein. "Used machinery continues to sell well although the sector is a little weaker," reports the Managing Director of RESALE exhibitor DMG Gebrauchtmaschinen GmbH, the sales subsidiary of machinery manufacturer Gildemeister. "Used machines are a sensible alternative in difficult times." Even if the number of visitors on the stand was slightly lower than last year, the company made a large number of promising contacts. "Especially in the CIS states, India and China," he adds. Gildemeister was one of the manufacturers who make up the second largest group of exhibitors at RESALE accounting for approx. 25 percent. Other renowned exhibitors from the manufacturing sector were Carl Zeiss, Siemens, Chiron, SHW, Zeppelin, Bruderer, ABB, IP Gansow, Hammel and Liebherr. Anyone buying directly from the manufacturer can expect the highest quality. "No manufacturer can afford to supply a faulty machine," reasons Hermann Hundeling from Volvo Construction Equipment Europe in Ismaning and mentions after-sales support in the same breath.

 RESALE returns in 2010 after the start of the Hannover Fair
Conferences with international participants such as the "Russian Business Forum" took place as part of the trade fair's fringe programme. For Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress-GmbH (KMK), RESALE is extremely important because of its international character. "No other trade fair in Baden-Württemberg brings together so many guests from every corner of the planet," says Britta Wirtz. "Because of this and trade fair partners like Germany Trade- and Invest, Karlsruhe is a landmark on the world map as a business location," sums up the spokesperson for the management of the KMK. Next year the world's largest trade fair for used machinery and equipment will again take place at the Karlsruhe trade fair site from Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 April 2010. Once again, RESALE will open its doors two days after the start of Germany's largest industrial show – the Hannover Fair.