With participation from various overseas automotive aftermarket manufacturers, automotive trade industry exhibition Automechanika Johannesburg is encouraging greater participation by exhibitors and visitors from sub-Saharan Africa, says show director Tracy Gounden.

Currently, the only international exhibitors signed up to attend Automechanika Johannesburg are from Germany, the US, the UK, India, Pakistan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Wide-ranging participation by large numbers of overseas exhibitors from various countries has been a feature of Automechanika Johannesburg since the first of these trade shows for the automotive aftermarket was staged in 2009 at the Expo Centre, in Nasrec.

This year, Automechanika Johannesburg will take place at the same venue, from June 7 to 10.

With attracting more representation from sub-Saharan Africa, Gounden says Automechanika Johannesburg’s Africa-centric programme includes promotional road shows to Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Egypt, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Lesotho. In these regions, Automechanika Johannesburg notes that significant interest is being shown, particularly with the ongoing roll-out of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which offers many profitable business opportunities.

“We see the seventh Automechanika Johannesburg trade show as the ideal meeting place for key buyers and exhibitors from the automotive aftermarket sector across Africa.

“There is a VIP programme for visitors from Africa, where we, as the organisers, will be assisting in setting up business-to-business meetings including matchmaking, with discounted flights and accommodation available to bona fide African visitors and exhibitors,” adds Gounden.

“Our head office in Johannesburg is well geared for the return to one-on-one trade fairs that are now being rolled out worldwide after two years of uncertainty with intermittent lockdowns worldwide in response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Messe Frankfurt South Africa MD Michael Dehn.

In this regard, he says Automechanika Frankfurt, Messe Frankfurt’s premier show, will revert to its traditional format of exhibitions, conferences, workshops and training initiatives, as well as experiential opportunities in September this year.

“This important upcoming trade show will now be the ideal opportunity for the diverse and wide-ranging stakeholders in the local and international automotive industry to reconnect and network. The interest from both exhibitors and visitors is most heartening as the automotive industry restarts after a two-year hiatus,” concludes Dehn.