SMM Istanbul

This move abroad is a logical step. “We want to accompany our customers in key shipbuilding and shipping markets such as Turkey,” says Bernd Aufderheide, CEO of the SMM organiser HMC (Hamburg Messe und Congress GmbH), “and to offer them locally the quality which they have come to appreciate at the SMM”. Goca Exhibitions is well qualified as the partner for HMC, with many years of experience in the shipbuilding market in Turkey.
The SMM Istanbul
is an ideal regional addition to the global fair SMM. HMC and Goca Exhibitions are thus responding to the growing weight of Turkey as a shipbuilding country and the steady rise in the importance of maritime logistics, both globally and in regional trading.
Istanbul is a major centre of shipping and shipbuilding, with an impact that goes far beyond the borders of Turkey. This great city on the Bosporus links Europe with the countries of the Near and Middle East and the Black Sea Region, all the way to the Caspian Sea. 75% of Turkey’s international trade is controlled from Istanbul. This is where most of the multi-national companies have their headquarters for the whole region. And all of that benefits the SMM Istanbul.
The industry in Turkey
has great expectations of the new shipbuilding fair SMM Istanbul. Murat Bayrak, Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Shipbuilders' Association GİSBİR welcomes this move by HMC and Goca Exhibitions: "Holding this regional event of the world's number one shipbuilding fair in Turkey, an emerging shipbuilding nation, will give a further boost to this dynamic industry, with impact extending beyond the borders of Turkey."
Dr. Alexander Nürnberg, Chairman of the Management Board of the VDMA working group on Shipbuilding and the Offshore Supply Industry, and Deputy Chairman of the SMM Advisory Board, sees the establishment of this regional trade fair with SMM quality standard in Istanbul as a great opportunity for the marine equipment industry – "Turkey is growing strongly in its importance for the German and European marine equipment industry, and that makes local involvement more and important. Istanbul is also a crystallisation point of Turkish shipping, attracting a lot of interest from the shipbuilding industries in South-East Europe and the Near and Middle East."
The SMM Istanbul gives ideal opportunities for companies operating internationally, enabling them to make new business contacts with regional suppliers of maritime technologies and products, shipyard and marine equipment and thus improve their sourcing basis in the region.
The SMM Istanbul will have all the features that make the SMM brand the world's number one maritime trade fair – perfect organisation, in-depth industry expertise, international experience, provision of regular expert information to exhibitors, and comprehensive and attentive service to exhibitors and visitors during the fair.
The three days of the trade fair will give visitors to the Bosporus site comprehensive and concentrated information on the capabilities of local and international suppliers of maritime technologies and products. The new shipbuilding fair reflects the trends and shipbuilding developments of the whole region. International participation in the SMM Istanbul is also expected to have major synergy effects for the HMC flagship event SMM.
The SMM Istanbul will take place alternately with the SMM, "in the wake" of the premier shipbuilding event, i.e. the main event in Hamburg will be held in even years, and the SMM Istanbul in odd years.