The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has announced that it will aid South African small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) through its export marketing and investment assistance (EMIA) National Pavilions programme to showcase their products at this year’s Gifa, Metec, Thermprocess and Newcast (GMTN) trade show, running from June 16 to 20, in Germany.

The DTI stated at a presentation held earlier this month in Kempton Park, Gauteng, that it was important that local companies in the metallurgy sector apply for the incentives being offered by the DTI, as it focuses on increasing manufacturing in South Africa and expanding the country’s export market.

“GMTN is on the DTI’s calendar of trade shows that South African business has to infiltrate this year. In the past, the South African metallurgy industry attracted about 570 highly qualified trade visitors, from South Africa to Düsseldorf, and this has placed South Africa among the forerunners in the industry internationally,” highlighted DTI export promotion executive assistant Hloniphile Sibanda.

The DTI, through the EIMA, will make provisional arrangements and bear the cost of economy class return airfare tickets of up to R17 000 for each SMME. Companies that qualify for these incentives will also be allowed to claim a subsistence allowance of R2 300 a day from the DTI.

Further, the DTI will provide for the transportation of samples of products, as it will not only appoint freight forwarders but also pay certain costs regarding the consolidation of exhibition material, the transport thereof from the consolidation point to the exhibition and back to the consolidation point in South Africa.

The department encourages businesses to start applying for these incentives immediately to ensure their presence at the GMTN trade show.

Organised by the Germany-based trade fair organisers Messe Düsseldorf, GMTN MD Friedrich-Georg Kehrer said at the breakfast that the organisers were expecting about 80 000 people from across the country to attend the quadrennial trade show.

Hosted since the 1960s, Gifa is the oldest of the trade shows and covers the foundry plants and equipment, die-casting machines and melting operations markets.

Thermprocess, the second-largest trade show, showcases industrial furnaces, industrial heat treatment plants and thermal processes.

Metec caters for plant manufacturers, as it showcases suppliers of plants, as well as equipment for ironmaking, steelmaking and nonferrous metal production. It also provides a platform for casting and pouring molten steel, as well as rolling and steel mills.

Newcast focuses on research information, offering direct contact with industry experts and providing insight into the technical and scientific progress that has been made in the foundry industry.

“Combining all four trade shows into one big show has worked well for all the industries involved. As a result, interest from industry personnel globally has grown [and], with every trade show, the number of people attending it has increased,” Kehrer noted.