Machine tool expo gets huge response

Business enquiries of Rs 5,000 cr generated.

The Indian Machine Tool Exhibition (IMTEX 2007), the largest exhibition of machine tools and manufacturing solutions in South Asia which concluded today, got a huge response from the manufacturing industry.

The week-long event saw business enquiries worth over Rs 5,000 crore. This is in addition to the actual orders worth Rs 600 crore booked during the event.

As much as 90 per cent of the machines displayed at the event were sold out by the sixth day of the event. The total value of all the exhibits was around Rs 300 crore, according to the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA) spokesperson.

N K Dhand, incoming president of IMTMA, said, "We shall carry forward the goodwill generated and focus on the design, total productivity management, reliability and on-time delivery of machines in our next edition of IMTEX. The Indian machine tool industry presently lacks in providing reliable machines on time and we need to improve on this factor. We have initiated several joint technology initiatives with various R&D institutes in Germany."

IMTEX 2007, organised by IMTMA, which was held for the first time in Bangalore in its 38-year history, witnessed the display of the technological capability of the machine tool industry from around 25 countries.

The event also created a new record in terms of the number of business visitors. It drew nearly 1.5 lakh business visitors as against 1.3 lakh that visited IMTEX 2004 at Mumbai.

From this year, IMTEX will be permanently held at a modern international exhibition centre in Bangalore, which contributes almost 70 per cent of the machine tool output in the organised sector in India. IMTMA also organised a concurrent fair, Tooltech 2007 "� the international exhibition of cutting tools and tooling technology systems.

According to C P Rangachar, President, IMTMA: "IMTEX has been a path-breaker in showcasing the design and innovative skills of the Indian machine tool industry alongside those from elsewhere. The exhibition has clearly displayed technologies and human capabilities in enabling excellence in Indian manufacturing. The presence of a massive number of business visitors has made IMTEX a truly-business-oriented exhibition."

A B2C event, featuring recent global trends in machine tools and manufacturing solutions, was a platform to reactivate the industry.

The exhibition saw the display of several new technologies such as dry machining, hi-speed machining, versatile and multi-functional machines, compact machines and machines with smaller footprints, and machine that provide manufacturing solutions rather than being standalones.