by Fastener World Inc.

Korea Metal Week is a critical event held particularly for professionals from the machinery industry. It aims at introducing new technology and equipment to satisfy the tremendous demand of Korean machinery market. This year (2015) its 16^th edition is now being grandly held at KINTEX with the attendance of 350 exhibitors using 765 standard booths. 

Korea Metal Week 2015, concurrently held with KOMAF and other industrial shows,  includes 9 thematic exhibit areas: fasteners & wire, die casting & foundry, automobile & machine parts, press & forging, tube & pipe, metal surface treatment & painting, 3D printing technology, aluminium, and composite. About 90 companies are exhibiting in the fastener & wire area and most of them are Korean exhibitors. In addition, there are also China and India national pavilions. Taiwanese fastener related exhibitors are Fastener World Inc. and Feng Yi Screw.

According to statistics, the domestic fastener production of Korean fastener industry in 2014 reached 0.99 million tons and its sales reached USD 4.1 billion (a slight decline from last year’s record due to the decline in car manufacturing in domestic Korea). In Korea, fastener demand is mainly from automobile, construction, and appliance industries. Over 0.77 million out of the 0.99 million tons of domestically made fasteners were used by the automobile industry; over 0.13 million tons used by construction; over 20 thousand tons used by electronics; and over 70 thousand tons used by other industries. 

In 2014, Korea’s fastener import value grew 1.7% from last year’s corresponding period to USD 0.53 billion. Main import origins were China (USD 0.17 billion), USA (USD 0.13 billion), Germany (USD 0.04 billion), and Taiwan (USD 0.027 billion), and four of these countries represented 32.5% of Korea’s total fastener import. In the same year, Korea’s fastener export grew 10.0% from last year’s corresponding period to USD 0.74 billion. Main export destinations were USA (USD 0.18 billion), China (USD 0.15 billion), Japan (USD 0.05 billion), and India (USD 0.03 billion).