The German power transmission engineering and fluid power industry supplies key components to ensure the international competitiveness of its customers. The most important customers of manufacturers of hydraulic products are to be found in the areas of construction and building materials machinery, agricultural machinery, machine tools and materials handling, while in the case of pneumatics, the major customers are in particular manufacturers of assembly and handling systems, food processing and packaging machines, printing and paper technology and also machine tools.
The United States buys fluid power products each year to the value of EUR 2.7 billion, of which a quarter comes from Germany alone. Canada is the next largest supplier but some way behind (15.7% of U.S. market demand), with Japan in 3rd place (12.6%).
In power transmission engineering, Japan is the main supplier to the United States with 20.8% of market demand, followed by Germany with 20.0%. Important customer groups are the wind industry, the mobile machinery industry, product safety systems engineering and industries related to production activities.
The U.S. market has been one of the most important export markets for German drive technology for decades. Of its exports in 2001 to the value of 12.5 billion euros, 10.6% went to the United States (putting Germany in second place behind China, 11.0% of whose exports went to the USA).
“The United States is one of the few Western industrialized countries with a positive demographic trend and therefore a market which is still prosperous and attractive to German industry. Moreover, it has been possible in recent years to observe a trend for the USA to return to its industrial roots, resulting in a high level of demand for modern manufacturing and production equipment,” declared Hartmut Rauen, VDMA General Manager of the Power Transmission Engineering and Fluid Power Associations in preparation of the machine tool fair IMTS, which takes place in Chicago September 10 to 15, 2012.
In the United States, German VDMA members impress customers with their high levels of quality and reliability, their efficiency and their high safety standard, based on holistic system expertise and last but not least with their global service. "German companies help in this way to minimize the total cost of ownership - an important argument in a budget-conscious market," emphasizes Christian H. Kienzle, CEO of ARGO-HYTOS GmbH and Chairman of the Fluid Power Association of the VDMA. ARGO-HYTOS is exhibiting at IMTS /Industrial Automation North America.
IMTS for the first time with MDA Pavilion
In view of its customer base, an industrial fair covering all aspects of production activities, machine tools and automation technology is highly attractive to German suppliers - and the IMTS with its Industrial Automation North America (IANA) show is therefore an ideal marketing platform for German companies. It is regarded as the leading trade fair in the North American market: in 2010, more than 82,000 visitors from 119 countries took the opportunity to gather information on the goods and services on offer by more than 1,700 exhibitors.
"Schaeffler has for many years been one of the leading suppliers of power transmission engineering to the North American market. This market has always been and continues to be of high importance for us and has great potential for the future. Our products are installed in many industrial applications such as machine tools, agricultural and construction machinery, wind power generation and rail technology and help provide efficient and reliable drive solutions. The industrial automation fair within the IMTS is a central element in the presentation of our innovations and services and at the same time an important communication platform for exchanging information with our customers and partners in North America," says Robert Schullan, Member of the Management Board of Schaeffler AG, Chairman of Schaeffler Industries and also Chairman of the VDMA Power Transmission Engineering Association.
For the first time this year, the IMTS will feature a so-called MDA Pavilion (motion, drive and automation) for the field of power transmission engineering and fluid power organized in the framework of the IANA. The VDMA will be represented there with its own stand (stand E-4090 in the East Building). Interested parties will be able to obtain information, brochures and manufacturer certificates here, above all relating to the power transmission engineering and fluid power, automation technology and wind industries.
