The Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers Association (AIMSAD) participated in the LIGNA 2023 Fair, the world’s largest fair in its field, with a total of 53 Turkish manufacturers, 37 of which are member companies. Turkish machinery attracted great attention at the fair where participants from 160 countries took part.
The woodworking machinery industry, which exports over 1 million dollars to 45 countries and whose economic volume has reached 500 million dollars, participated in the LIGNA 2023 Fair, the world’s largest fair in its field, with 37 member companies. Turkish machinery manufacturers left their mark on the fair, where a total of 53 Turkish companies participated in 6 thousand 500 square meters. Türkiye became the fourth country with the highest participation in the fair. In the fair where there was intense participation for five days, the companies that are members of AIMSAD showed great interest.LIGNA 2023, the world’s leading wood and woodworking fair, held in Hannover, Germany, between 15-19 May 2023, offered the opportunity to create many business contacts in five days full of innovation and inspiration. With the gathering of 1,300 participating companies from 50 different countries; Solution proposals for the wood industry, furniture making industry, woodworking trade and primary sector were discussed. The fair, where sustainability and digitalization megatrends are the focus, attracted great interest from all over the world as well as the host Germany. 80,000 visitors from 160 different countries had the opportunity to learn about smart machines and resource-saving production processes.In LIGNA 2023, intelligent and connected machines, systems and processes that make costs and production more efficient were particularly popular with the community. In addition, it was observed that there is a strong demand for automation and process optimization solutions to alleviate the impact of the shortage of skilled workers. One of the prominent themes of the fair was the importance of wood as a renewable resource and its role in the overall decarbonisation process. In the light of this, the increasing importance of wooden structure to create new market opportunities for mechanical engineering came to the fore.
The fair also offered visitors an extensive program of lectures, live presentations, special exhibitions and award ceremonies. At LIGNA.Stage in Hall 12, around 90 speakers presented the latest developments and trends in the market. Skilled staff shortages and recruitment issues were also addressed in a specific area, which promoted networking between skilled workers and potential future employers.
“LIGNA HAS FURTHER STRENGTHENED ITS POSITION”
Making an evaluation about the fair, Deutsche Messe Group of Companies Chairman of the Board Dr. Jochen Köckler said, “LIGNA 2023 exceeded the expectations of both our participating companies and our visitors to a great extent, and the machinery and equipment solutions presented at the fair; showed that it paved the way for a sustainable and digitized wood, furniture and construction industry. It is quite remarkable that 60 percent of the visitors come from abroad. LIGNA has further strengthened its position as the world’s leading woodworking exhibition. Our visitors had the opportunity to experience the transformation in the industry live in our exhibition halls. The fair showcased the entire range of the value chain, including woodworking machinery and equipment, tools and work processes, industrial robots and even exoskeletons to support skilled craft and forestry professionals. The machines on display are not only limited to wood processing, but also suitable for use for glass, plastic and composite materials. It is plausible that LIGNA exhibitors will expand their product portfolio and offer a wide range of options to their customers.”
“TURKISH WOODWORKING MACHINES LEFT THEIR MARK ON LIGNA”
Expressing that, as AIMSAD, they are proud to have participated in the LIGNA Fair, which was reorganized after four years, with 37 member companies, AIMSAD Chairman of the Board İsmet Toktaş said; “We can say that Turkish woodworking machines left their mark on the fair, which is called the giants league of our industry. The machines offered to the market by our industry, which competes successfully with its European competitors, attracted great attention throughout the fair. The stands of all our member companies were flooded with visitors throughout the fair. The world saw the point that the Turkish machinery industry has reached on site. We did not set a country or region as a target in LIGNA 2023. We targeted all continents in this fair. Our companies had the opportunity to stand out from the competition by opening up to new markets at the fair. We, as AIMSAD, supported the promotion of our participating companies with the advertisements we made at different points of the fairground. We are confident that both the number of our participants and our market share will increase in the coming years. We will work together and grow together. As you know, we have set a target of 200 million dollars in exports this year. LIGNA Fair will also be a great driving force in achieving this goal.” Providing information about the WoodTech Fair, which will be held for the 36th time this year, Toktaş continued his words as follows; “This year, the WoodTech Fair will be held independently of the previously concurrently organized Intermob Fair. The fair, which will be held at TÜYAP Fair Center between 19-23 October 2023, was visited by a total of 60 thousand people last year, 12 thousand of which were visitors from abroad. We are talking about an organization that has maintained its success as the largest specialized fair in Eurasia for exactly 36 years. We expect a significant increase in the number of foreign visitors this year. We are getting ready to host the world in Istanbul on October 19th.’’
“THE TURKISH WOODWORKING MACHINERY INDUSTRY HAS PROVEN HOW WELL IT IS PREPARED FOR THE LIGNA FAIR”
Arif Onur Kaçak, Secretary General of AIMSAD, who shared his evaluations about LIGNA 2023 Fair stated as follows; “As the whole industry knows, LIGNA Fair is the largest and most important organization of the woodworking machinery industry. It is a great pleasure for us to come together with all sector stakeholders at this fair after four years. I can honestly say that we had a very successful fair. The Turkish woodworking machinery industry has proven how well it is prepared for the LIGNA 2023 Fair, both with the number of participants and with the machinery and services it offers to the industry. 37 AIMSAD members were participants in the fair where 53 Turkish companies took part in total. Turkish companies participated in the fair with a total of 6 thousand 500 square meters. 5 thousand 700 square meters of this belonged to the members of AIMSAD. When we look at the square meter basis, AIMSAD members covered 85% of this area. During our meetings with our member companies, we learned that all of our companies are very pleased to participate in the fair. Our member companies both signed new dealership contracts and showed once again how well they competed with their European competitors in this important organization. All our stands attracted great attention from the visitors during the fair. As a matter of fact, our association stand was never empty. For five days, we had important meetings with our companies, regarding the Turkish market and the WoodTech Fair.”
“EVERYONE AGREES THAT TURKISH MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS ARE IN THİS MARKET”
Korcan Aloğlu-KRC CNC
As KRC CNC, we are pleased to be at LIGNA 2023 Fair. We are trying to make the best use of the advantages that the fair has provided us. The market we are in gives us excitement. We are in the happiness and excitement of introducing our machines to the whole world. During the fair, we came together with visitors from all over the world who are really interested, know what they need, and follow technology closely. We introduce our products to these people and establish new connections. This is a very important step for us. Since we are a company that has just opened up to the world, we come together and meet many people for the first time. When they learn that we are a Turkish company, their interest increases even more. Everyone is aware of the quality of Turkish machines now. Everyone agrees that Turkish machinery manufacturers are in this market. This is something to be proud of for us. Our aim is to further increase the success of our country as a sector.
“TURKISH WOODWORKING MACHINERY INDUSTRY IS INCREASİNG ITS POWER IN THE WORLD MARKET DAY BY DAY”
Ozlem Kirimli Durular-MKT Makina
First of all, we are very happy to be here. Since the fair has not been organized for a long time due to the pandemic, we are faced with intense interest. A large part of the visitors are made up of relevant people. Our company attracts a lot of attention. We can easily understand from our interviews that this concern is valid for all Turkish participants. We had visitors from all over the world and from different geographies. There are a lot of customers especially from South America. However, we had visitors from North America and Europe. These markets are our target markets that we want to be active in. Our visitors think that we are European at first, then they examine the machines and like them very much. When they learn that we are Turkish, they show a special interest. We’re getting very flattering responses. The Turkish woodworking machinery industry is increasing its power in the world market day by day. For about 35 years, as someone in this market, Turkish machines are not inferior to the machines of European manufacturers. We are more dynamic, we can integrate the demands of the market into our machines much faster. We have very good engineers, so we will be showing our strength even better in the coming years.
“NOW, THE GLOBAL SECTOR KNOWS TURKİSH MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS AND MACHINES CLOSELY”
Orhan Demirtas – Dynawrap
As the industry, we missed the LIGNA Fair, which steers the woodworking machinery industry at many points. Because it is a fair that brings together different products with customers from many countries of the world. This is a center where completely new technology, new products and solutions for these products meet. We have already started to think about what we can bring to the fair to be held in 2025. We are faced with a large number of visitors at this fair. Usually, we had a lot of visitors from America and Canada. Those markets had big machine needs, we tried to address their needs. Our excitement also increases when we come together with visitors from different geographies that we have not met before. Visitors encounter many Turkish companies at the fairground. Since our Turkish machines have been competing with Germans and Italians in the sector for many years, the levels of the machines they produce are quite high. For these reasons, when visitors come to our stand, they think we are Europeans at first. However, when we say that there are Turkish machines, people no longer find it strange as before. Because now the global sector knows Turkish machinery manufacturers and machines closely. They encounter Turkish machines at many stands. We have started to reap the rewards of years of time, money and effort spent by the leading companies of the sector in these and similar fairs. We believe that this will increase even more in the coming period.
“THE DEMAND FOR TURKISH MACHINES IS INCREASING EVERY YEAR”
Hope Dinc – Dincmak
As Dinçmak, we are participating in the LIGNA Fair for the eighth time. The fair passed with great interest and high demand as usual. We were very pleased with the interest in our new projects. We met with many visitors from South America, certain parts of the African continent, and Europe. We signed new dealership contracts and projects. LIGNA proved to be the biggest fair of the industry this year as well. As the companies that have participated in the LIGNA Fair before know, this fair is not actually a fair that appeals to the end user. Of course, we also met with the end users, we made sales, but it was a fair where we provided more dealership agreements for us. We tried to strengthen our relations in markets where we are not, and we made important decisions about making new collaborations. We can say that the visitors showed great interest in Turkish machinery and Turkish companies during the fair. The confidence of the industry in us has increased. As Dinçmak, our machines operate in more than 65 countries. When you present this data to people, we both gain their trust and thus enter new markets. We are trying to increase our strength in these markets. The demand for Turkish machines is increasing every year. We see that AIMSAD has made great contributions in this regard. We also believe that Turkish Woodworking Machinery portal gives us strength.
“WE CAN EASILY COMPETE WITH EUROPE BOTH IN TERMS OF PRICE AND QUALITY”
Can Akkuş – Fen-İş Makina
We are having a fair where everything is going very well for us. Our dealers, whom we talked to four years ago, come to visit us again, as well as we make new dealer meetings. Of course, it is very important that the LIGNA Fair is being reorganized four years later because many things have changed in this process. People from all over the world visit this fair to follow these changes. We had a lot of visitors, especially from Europe. Apart from that, we met a lot of people from South America. We introduced our machines to them and discussed what we can do for new collaborations. Here we saw once again that; Turkish machines can compete very successfully with their European competitors. As a sector, we produce very high quality machines. We can easily compete with Europe both in terms of price and quality. For this reason, our customers are no longer surprised because Turkish machines are no longer ordinary machines like they used to be.
“VISITORS WANT TO SEE WHAT TURKISH MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS OFFER TO THE INDUSTRY”
Hasan Cengiz – Orimak
The LIGNA Fair, which was reorganized after four years, was a very successful and enjoyable fair for us. We are very happy to be here and to introduce our products and services to the world. LIGNA Fair is a fair that brings you people, brands and markets that you can’t come together with, so it is very important for the whole sector. There were visitors from almost all over the world at the fair. We can say that we have seen great interest especially from South America and Europe. Turkish machinery manufacturers began to be well known and appreciated by the industry with the products they offered to the market. Our strength in the sector is increasing day by day. Most of the visitors know Turkish brands very well and they want to see what Turkish machinery manufacturers are offering to the sector. Of course, this excites us as well. We had very important meetings during the fair, we made decisions about new dealerships and we have already started as a company for the fair that will be held in 2025.
“AS TURKISH MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS, WE HAVE GAINED AN IMPORTANT PLACE IN THE SECTOR”
Abdurrahim Aktaş – Saf Teknik
The fair is really nice and productive. LIGNA is the biggest meeting point for our industry. Here, we had the chance to meet with both our old and new dealers and business partners. We had visitors from different geographies from all over Europe to South Africa and Peru. At this fair, we saw how much we strengthened our position in the global industry as Turkish woodworking machinery manufacturers. You can understand how well they have done from the Turkish companies in the fair area, the square meters they rent and the products they exhibit. Our visitors also tell us that there are too many Turkish brands at the fair. Most of them are working with a Turkish brand or are in negotiations to work. This is truly a proud painting. As Turkish machinery manufacturers, we definitely think that we have gained an important place in the sector.
“WE CAN EASILY SAY THAT THE PERCEPTION OF TURKISH MECHANICS HAS GAINED MOMENTUM”
Burak Akıskalı – Nesto Makine
Although we are attending LIGNA Fair for the first time, the fair was very successful for Nesto Makine. We had the opportunity to meet with new job opportunities and new sector representatives. We also had the opportunity to make new connections and hot sales. We have already started to get excited about the fair to be held in 2025 and talk about what we can do. When we looked at the visitor profile, we saw that the people we tried to reach came from many countries of the world. There were different visitors, mainly from Europe and South America. The high number of Turkish companies at the fair this year brought interest and concern. We received very good feedback from the visitors as the products produced by each Turkish company are of high quality. We have received comments from many different visitors that the quality and design of our machines is very good. We can easily say that the perception of Turkish machinery has gained momentum upwards.
“WE HAVE SEEN ONCE AGAIN THAT THE INDUSTRY’S INTEREST IN TURKISH MACHINERY IS INCREASING DAY BY DAY”
Onur Ozbek – Baromak
As Baromak family, we are very pleased to be at LIGNA 2023 Fair. Indeed, from the first day of the fair, from morning to evening, there is a beautiful, effective and intense interest. The hall we are in is a specialty hall, that is, a hall where only finishing machines are located. For this reason, our guests come here about sanding and painting, which is our product group, and we really talk about technical things with everyone who comes, and the business somehow turns into commerce. There are both end users and companies coming for dealership. We have made four or five dealership agreements with some countries that we have not worked with since day one. Apart from that, we made good sales to end users. During the fair, we had visitors from different parts of the world. In our meetings, we have seen once again that the interest of the sector in Turkish machinery is increasing day by day.
“TURKISH MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS ARE PRACTICAL, CREATIVE AND FOLLOW INNOVATIONS CLOSELY”
Altug Vargel – Kocayusuf Makine
There is a great interest in our machines, but we will see if they turn into sales after the fair. We can say that visitors come from almost all over the world. There are many visitors from Australia, Brazil, North and South America and especially Europe. People missed this fair, we can see this very clearly. We can easily say that there is a great interest in Turkish machines. When they learn that the machine was manufactured in Turkey, they are surprised because they usually think we are European. Turkey was a little behind in promotions, but they started to show themselves with the export attack made in recent years. While we used to take part in fairs with small quantities on the coast and corner, now we participate in large quantities at the crucial points of the halls. This, in turn, attracts people’s attention. Turkish machinery manufacturers are practical and creative, they follow innovations closely. They can attract people’s attention by putting them on the machines and applying them every year.