File picture of commuters travelling along the Federal Highway in Kuala Lumpur December 18, 2013. Malaysia’s auto-parts industry has made good strides over the years and is the best-developed in South-east Asia. — Picture by Choo Choy May

FRANKFURT, Sept 15 — Malaysia’s auto-parts industry has made good strides over the years and is the best-developed in South-east Asia.

This is according to Michael Johannes, Vice President at Messe Frankfurt, the organiser of the world’s largest auto-parts and after-market trade fair, Automechanika.

The event is held biennially and is now into its 25th year.

Johannes also touched on the Automechanika Kuala Lumpur Trade Fair, the Malaysian edition of Automechanika to be held in March 2019, and described it as the gateway to the Asean region for Messe Frankfurt.

“Automechanika Kuala Lumpur may be a smaller show, but of high quality, and deals with topics which are future-oriented.

“We also organise seminars, programmes about various projects of the industry during the event and provide the latest data and information about developments taking place within it,” he told Bernama when met at the Frankfurt edition of Automechanika.

The last edition of Automechanika Kuala Lumpur — also a biennial event — saw 246 companies from 18 countries and regions showcasing their products before some 5,650 visitors from 71 countries.

The 2019 event will be held under the theme, “Sourcing, Training, Entertainment”.

Within the Asean region, Messe Frankfurt also stages a Vietnamese edition called Automechanika Ho Chin Minh City. This year’s event was held in April.

Johannes clearly sees Asia as the growth centre in propelling innovations and developments taking place in the industry and China was going to continue to be the mainstay of this growth on the continent.

“China’s now places great emphasis on environmental protection and reducing the level of pollution,” he said.

He pointed out that two major technical developments would have a long-term impact on the automobile industry and in turn, also the auto-parts sector.

“There is great emphasis on clean vehicles and digitalisation. There will be business opportunities in the new business models indeed, digitalisation will generate the biggest growth.

“Obviously, one will have to provide technical solutions, with manufacturers leaning towards the production of conventional vehicles with cleaner outlets.

“There will be an emphasis on producing cleaner diesel. Electricity-driven vehicles because of their high price will require support from the state. The question will also arise about the batteries which will have to be cleaner. We will have to resort to ‘intelligent transport solutions,” Johannes said.

The Automechanika Frankfurt 2018, which ran from Sept 11-15, attracted more than 5,000 exhibitors from around the world.

Other than Frankfurt, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Min City, Automechanika has also editions in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) while alternating with Jeddah, Istanbul (Turkey), Dubai (UAE), Birmingham (UK), Mexico City (Mexico), Atlanta (US), Moscow (Russia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Shanghai (China), New Delhi (India), Madrid (Spain), Astana (Kazakhstan) and Johannesburg (South Africa). — Bernama