KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) is organising an Export Acceleration Mission (EAM) to promote and support local exporters of Industry 4.0-related machinery products and services at the Hannover Messe 2018 trade fair in Germany.
Chief executive officer, Mohd Shahreen Zainooreen Madros will lead the EAM, comprising sixteen companies with 32 delegates, to what is the world’s largest industrial technology trade fair from April 23-27.
“Malaysia will showcase its capability in the areas such as engineering solutions, precision engineering and machining for sectors such as semiconductor automation, rubber gloves, textile, and heavy plant such as steel making plant.
“Malaysian companies will also promote solutions related to automation and robotic systems as well as systems and solutions related to data and business intelligence management. The Malaysian Pavilion will be based in the Industry Supply and Integrated Automation Motion Drive hall,” Matrade said in a statement yesterday.
Mohd Shahreen said some of the companies involved in the EAM were already exporting to the European market and would be keen to use their participation to further enhance the footprint in the region.
“Malaysia’s participation at Hannover Messe is part of Matrade’s push to further highlight and brand Malaysia’s capabilities on homegrown solutions related to Industry 4.0 smart factories, digital and automation robotics to potential global business partners.
“We have planned for business matching sessions for our companies, which hopefully can lead to collaborations, partnership and joint ventures. This is critical as establishing market access for industrial technology and solutions is not straight forward,” he added.
Mohd Shahreen said for a long time, Malaysia’s technology-related exports were more on parts and components, but the country is actually equally strong in others areas, and this is what its needs to showcase to move up the value chain and create brand-champions.
“The participation is also to provide an avenue for the Malaysian companies to obtain greater insights on industry trends, especially those related to Industry 4.0, and for them to retain their competitiveness moving forward,” he added.
Matrade said Malaysia’s total trade in machinery, equipment and parts in 2017 was valued at US$27.64 billion (US$1 = RM3.89), with exports growing 3.1 per cent to US$9.34 billion.
“Major exported items last year included machinery and parts specialised for particular industries (mainly semiconductor industry), heating and cooling equipment and parts (mainly air-conditioning machines) and pumps (other than for liquids), compressors, fans, centrifuges and parts.
“All of these collectively accounted for a 55.3 per cent share of machinery, equipment and parts exports,” it said.
Matrade said Malaysia’s top five export destinations for machinery, equipment and parts were Singapore, the United States, Thailand, Indonesia and China. They collectively accounted for a 49.3 per cent share of total exports of machinery, equipment & parts.
“Within the same period, Germany was Malaysia’s 11th largest trading partner and 11th top export destination for the export of machinery, equipment and parts. Malaysia’s total trade with Germany also increased 10.9 per cent to US$12.33 billion in 2017,” it added. — Bernama