KOFAS 2008 Displays
Advanced FA Equipment

Attracts 302 exhibitors from 22 countries

The recently-ended International Factory Automation System Show 2008 Korea (KOFAS 2008), the nation's largest automation-related exhibition, highlighted the latest factory automation equipment.
KOFAS 2008 brought together 302 exhibitors from 22 countries, including Japan and Germany, which displayed 1,362 items and state-of-the-art technologies said Hur Nam-yong, director of the Machinery, Aerospace & Defense Industries Division at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. About 1,000 buyers from 18 countries participated in the exhibition.
An initial tally compiled by the Korea Association of Machinery Industry (KOAMI), the organizer of the exhibition, showed that about 12,000 negotiations held during the fair yielded contracts worth $760 million, including verbal agreements.
KOFAS 2008 was held from Sept. 25 through Sept. 28 at KINTEX in Goyang, north of Seoul.
Rim Chemin, vice minister of knowledge economy, said in a speech during a tape-cutting ceremony, that the machinery industry is the mother industry of
all manufacturing fields, serving as a yardstick of the industrialization of a nation, and the Korean machinery industry has become an exporting mainstay. He urged the representatives of companies to shore up their industrial constitutions through management and technology innovation in order to maintain growth momentum.
Stats released by the KOAMI showed that Korea exported $86.3 billion of machinery, encompassing assembled metalwork, general machinery and transportation machinery in the first eight months of this year, an 17.7 percent rise over the same period last year, and imported $54.6 billion worth of machinery, an 11.7 percent increase, for a $31.7 billion surplus. If the trend continues into late this year, KOAMI said, the Korean machinery industry is predicted to post $136 billion worth of exports to record the largest-ever trade surplus. With $12.3 billion in accumulated trade deficit in all industries in the first eight months of the year, the machinery industry, once a disgraced industrial sector, has emerged as one of the nation's representative exporting industries.
Thirty-one individuals and 15 companies were decorated with orders and other prizes in recognition of their contributions to the development of excellent capital goods.
Dongnam Precision Chairman Lee Im-woo was awarded with the Order of Industrial Service, Gold Tower, while Turbo Power Tech Co. CEO Chung Hyung-ho was honored with the Order of Industrial Service, Silver Tower. KMC President Chung Chang-moo was given the Order of Industrial Service, Bronze Tower.
The exhibition was divided into five specific sectors -- factory automation (FA) & control systems, metalworking & tools, pneumatics & tools, measurement & test and pack & logistics -- and a pavilion for foreign participants.
The 13th biennial exhibition was Korea's largest factory automation-related fair designed to give buyers and spectators alike chances to take a look at the latest FA equipment and technologies.
In particular, officials of Indian power plant companies and 15 Japanese plant purchase delegates were invited to the exhibition to discuss Korean power equipment and plant components and device makers'entry into foreign markets. Reports say that India plans to invest about $20 million in the next five years to solve its chronic power shortage.
Korean power companies including Korea Western Power (WP) and Korea East West Power Co. (EWP) and their 14 component and materials partners jointly opened a power pavilion. nw

(left) Vice Minister for Industry and Technology Rim Chemin and other notables participate in a ceremony to open the International Factory Automation System Show 2008 Korea (KOFAS 2008). Attendees look around the exhibits.