MTA Vietnam 2015: Servicing industry growth

Although these reports can produce accurate facts and figures on the financial state of an industry, it’s often difficult to get an accurate sense of optimism amongst a country’s manufacturing sector. As a way of getting a true understanding of a country’s potential industry growth, one is much better off looking at the buying habits of a country’s manufacturing sector, and their investment into new technologies, equipment, and machinery. If this being the case, the large number of exhibitors and the large number of sales made at this year’s MTA Vietnam (held in HCMC between the 5-8 of July 2015) would indicate that the Vietnamese manufacturing sector is indeed alive and well, and very optimistic about the coming years.

MTA Vietnam had its humble beginnings in 2005, and since then has grown to become the leading metalworking exhibition in Vietnam, attracting all the leading brands from all over the world. Ms Lindy Wee, Chief Executive Singapore Exhibition Services, the producers of MTA Vietnam said, “Over the past 10 years MTA Vietnam has started to outgrow the exhibition halls of SECC (Saigon Exhibition & Conference Centre) and is starting to overflow into the foyer areas. We’re also looking at the possibility of tenting some of the outdoor areas for future shows as a way of accommodating further growth, which is a good problem for us to have to solve”. Ms Wee went onto say that there were a total of 346 exhibitors at this year’s show with nearly 80% coming from overseas. There was also strong representation from a lot of overseas companies that were part of the country/group pavilions. Ms Wee explained that the country pavilions here at MTA Vietnam, such as Japan, Germany, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan  etc. are supported by their various countries’ Ministries, and in total there were 20 countries being represented at this year’s event. With financial and logistical support from their respective governments, Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are able to expand their export markets into countries like Vietnam through contact with local agents. The local industry associations also assist greatly with providing support to foreign governments and their industry representatives, and are strong supporters of MTA Vietnam.

When asked about any products that stood out at this year’s exhibition, Ms Wee pointed out that they’re seeing a lot more Laser technology on the floor these days, particularly in the areas of cutting and measuring. There’s also an increasing demand for high end machine with simple operating systems as Vietnam is still not a great market for advance technology that requires an abundance of technologically savvy and skilled workers. However, as orders increase and there’s a demand for higher productivity, increased quality, and reduced waste, Vietnamese manufacturers are taking a little more risk with their investment into production technology.

Regarding the success of the exhibition, in terms of sales made by exhibitor, Ms Wee said that as the event producers we always look for a balance in quantity and quality. Quantity is creating the industry buzz around the event by providing opportunities for people to see quality machinery and future technologies, and to share industry knowledge and industry best practices. However, all of this needs to be balanced with Quality, which relates to exhibitors cutting serious deals. If the exhibition doesn’t yield some positive outcome relating to potential profits, then we’d find it hard to get exhibitors. So a big part of our efforts is to attract as many serious buyers as we can, and by the number of machines popping up around the exhibition hall with ‘SOLD’ signs on them, I’d say we had a good outcome from our efforts.

On my way around MTA Vietnam 2015, I had the opportunity to talk to a number of exhibitors and find out more about their products and strategies operating in a growth market such as Vietnam. My first stop on the long journey around this year’s exhibition was GF MACHINERY SOLUTIONS, and according to Carlos Gazlo, the Managing Director of the company’s South East Asia and Pacific operations, “GF Machinery Solutions are world leading providers of machines, and automation solutions, and services the tool and mould making industry, and manufacturers of precision components”. Carlos went onto say that the company’s products range from electric discharge machines and high-speed and high-performance Milling machines, including clamping and palletization systems, to 3D Laser surface texturing machines, services, spare and expendable parts, to name a few. As the company’s name implies, GF Machinery Solutions see themselves as providers of the whole package; the quality machines and all the technology that goes with it, the hardware, the software, automation and operational solutions, as well as a superior technical support team. GF caters to an array of industries, from automotive, electronics, medical, etc. The company manufactures their machines in a number of locations in Switzerland and China and has representation in countries all over the world including a sales and service office here in Vietnam, where they recently opened their company’s office in Hanoi. Carlos mentioned that after trading in Vietnam through our local agents, AMS Co Ltd Vietnam, for over 10 years now; opening our Hanoi office is a testament to our commitment to Vietnam. We’ll continue our relationship with AMS representing us here in the south of the country and we’ll endeavour to develop the northern region through our Hanoi office.

Manufacturers of metrology equipment are always prominent at MTA Vietnam, and this year wasn’t any different. The need for precision in manufacturing these days is paramount if a business wants to stay competitive, and as technology advances the precision that can be achieved is nothing short of amazing. During my time at MTA Vietnam 2015 I caught up with a number of the world leading manufacturers of high precision measuring equipment, to get an understanding of what type of products they had on offer at this year’s event. The first stand I visited selling metrology equipment at MTA was the UK-based company RENISHAW. In operations since the early 70s, Renishaw are one of the big players on the world stage and produce a range of products for precision measurement and process control such as CMMs and machine tool probes, 3D laser spatial scanners, high speed linear and rotary encoder systems, metal 3D printers and the list goes on. Renishaw also manufactures measuring equipment for medical and scientific purposes. I spoke to Steve Bell, Renishaw’s General Manager for the ASEAN region, and asked him about his products they had on offer at this year’s MTA Vietnam. Steve said there’s been a bit of a buzz around their machine tool product range called The Primo, which came about through really looking at the market and seeing what customers operating machine tool were needing. What we found was that in counties like Germany, the USA, the average fitting cost for a measuring probe on a machine tool is something like 40%, but if you look at the other end of the scale in countries like China it’s around 1 or 2%, so we found that manufacturers were apprehensive about making a big investment into measuring probes that were expensive, fragile and complicated technologies. So we developed the Primo range to provide a low cost, easy to operate, sturdy entry level machine tool probes to maintain quality precision at a reasonable price.

Another of the leading metrology brands that are a regular feature at MTA Vietnam is Hexagon. HEXAGON METROLOGY has a long history of manufacturing precision measuring equipment dating back some 200 year. Trinh Quang Phat, Manager of Hexagon’s HCMC office said the company are world leaders in the manufacturing of precision testing equipment and offer an extensive range of CMMs of all sizes, laser scanners, machine tool probes, laser tracking systems, automation solutions, as well as offering the full technical support services and software development. The company operates over 20 manufacturing facilities, 70 Precision Centers for service and demonstrations, and a network of over 100 distribution partners on five continents. Phat said that Hexagon have been operating here in Vietnam for 4 years and have representative offices in Hanoi and HCMC. Phat went onto say that Vietnam is still experiencing a very healthy growth in many manufacturing sectors, and we are seeing a lot of foreign investment coming into the country and setting up operations, which means a need for our equipment and services. When I asked Phat about the buying habits of manufacturers here in Vietnam he said the local companies usually buy entry level machines or machines in the mid-range price. But we have a few overseas companies like Roll Royce that are consumers of the high end machines. Although this will probably change in the near future as the foreign companies start to outsource more to the local SMEs and the demand for quality increases, then the local companies will have to start increasing their investment into more advance technologies.

Another one of the big metrology brands present at this year’s MTA was ZEISS INDUSTRIAL METROLOGY. Zeiss manufacture a large range of CMMs for very serious industrial use, process control and inspection units, computer tomography, contact and optical sensors, measuring, evaluation and management software, and of course, they also offer an extensive operational solutions and technical support services. When visiting the Zeiss stand at MTA I got the opportunity to speak to Mr. Shaun Lim, the company’s Regional Director for the South East Asian region and asked him about his company’s efforts here in Vietnam. Shaun said Zeiss has been coming to MTA Vietnam for about 6 years, and as with a lot of companies at the show, we come to enhance our presence in the market and make new customers. Shaun explained that they have a number of mid-range performance class CMM measuring machines on offer at this year’s show, which we have been selling quite a few of here in Vietnam. Shaun went onto say that although the market here still focuses on the entry level and mid-range machines, he’s starting to get some enquiries for the high end machines, so I can see the buying habits changing in the near future. Zeiss Metrology is a German Company (part of the Carl Zeiss group of companies) with their South East Asian headquarters in Singapore. Zeiss, as with a lot of overseas companies operating in the region, have established a strong presence here in Vietnam, and in recent years opened 2 representative offices, one in Hanoi and one in HCMC, an indication of Zeiss’s confidence in the continuing growth of Vietnam’s manufacturing sector. When I asked about the company’s efforts in the area of research and development Shaun said that “Zeizz has always been known in the field metrology for coming up with new and innovated ideas and technologies. Over the last few years we have also been focused on improving and building upon our present technology. We’re also putting a lot of resources into non-contact measuring technology such as using cameras and light sensors as optical measurement”.

Another German company I spoke to that has a growing market presence here in Vietnam is TRUMPF PTE LTD, manufacturers of machine tools such as 2D laser cutting machines, tube cutting machines, punching machines, punch laser machines for combined processing, bending machines, automation components, punching and bending tools, laser markers, hand held power tools, etc. etc. As with most of the large companies operating in Vietnam for a number of years, Trumpf opened representative offices in Hanoi and HCMC, and when I was at MTA Vietnam I managed to talk with Trumpf’s Business Development and Marketing Manager, Asia pacific, Carina Albrecht, who gave me an insight into the products they had on display at this year’s event. Carina said the market here is still developing and have move from purchasing low end or second hand machines to investing more into the mid-range machines, and now our next challenge is to generate a greater interest in our automation series of machine such as our TruPunch 1000 series. Carina pointed out that although local manufacturers sees automation as the way of the future, and a way of increasing productivity and quality, they still have been apprehensive about investing a great deal into this technology as they presently see it as too expensive, so we’ve developed machines we classify as entry level affordable automation systems to satisfy future market demands. It’s our TruPunch punching machine we have on display here at MTA Vietnam, and we’ve been more than happy with the interest we’ve received from attendees. When I asked Carina about the advances in laser technologies and how this will affect the more traditional methods of punching she explained; although cutting lasers are being developed at a rapid pace, our punching machines also do a lot of forming which helps in avoiding secondary processes, so our punching machines are still very relevant with manufacturing products that require multi processes.

By the end of this year’s MTA Vietnam most companies I spoke to were more than happy with the outcome of the event. The general consensus amongst MTA exhibitors was that Vietnam is still one of the region’s hot spot regarding industry development, and most overseas companies are committed to servicing this growth by providing quality products, process solutions, and a superior after sales service.