2020 KOAA GTT SHOW

2020 KOAA GTT SHOW (Korea Automotive Industry Exhibition) was held from 18th to 20th in Songdo Convensia convention center, Incheon.

I attended to this show as a participating company with my booth.

Because of Covid-19, I already knew that there is no overseas buyers in this time.

But I decided to attend 🙂 So I can show how the exhibition was going on.

To prevent Covid-19, we passed through the sterilizer which looks like gate.

At the gate to the hall, safety guards checked each visitor’s temperature by noncontact sensing camera.

Also they stick “temperature checking sticker” on each one’s wrist.

If someone has a fever, you can see this sticker become yellow.

Also those safety guards walk around the exhibition site, warn who is not wearing a face mask.

The exhibition was small.

It was understandable that not many companies participated due to Covid-19.

I saw some empty booths too.

If you go to the another auto parts exhibition (such as automechanika) you can find the suppliers by the category – engine, suspension, filter, etc.

Unfortunately, KOAA show is not divided by category. Most of companies are participated by support fund from the state/city. So suppliers are grouped by area – Busan, Incheon, Daegu, etc.

I think that is not best way for visitors to check and find their requested items at the exhibition site.

But what can we do. First of all there are too less participating companies, although there are over 8,500 manufacturers.

And over 50% are OE manufacturers, who don’t need overseas buyers (because they are enough big companies) or who have a contract with Car makers(Hyundai/Kia/GM), no right to sell their products except the car makers.

They don’t have a reason to participate.

Then trading companies, aftermarket manufacturers and the OE manufacturers who produce the components of auto parts, such a spring, gear, metal part, etc. remain.

Overseas buyers are expecting to find OE complete parts, but it never happen.

Even if an OE manufacturer who produces complete assembles parts attends to the show, Hyundai/Kia/GM parts are not able to be sold because of intellectual property.

If a buyer will pay for molds, to produce his own products(but not the same as Hyundai/Kia/GM) they may accept.

But who will pay such a huge amount of money to develop molds?

If you go to China, they do everything what buyers want without paying for molds.

So OE manufacturers are looking for another Car makers in overseas.

This year KOTRA did its best to match buyers and suppliers.

As you see the above photos, they installed “Online meeting place” quite huge. There are several rooms in this place to meet buyers by ZOOM – video conference application.

It was no familiar to do it, but I think we need to get used to it.

Because nobody know when the situation become better.