Review
2024
The interest of visitors and exhibitors in Hungary’s most significant business and industrial event remains unbroken. Over 14,000 professionals attended the MACH-TECH International Trade Exhibition for Machine Manufacturing and Welding Technology and the INDUSTRY DAYS International Industrial Trade Exhibiton, and the AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY International Trade Exhibition for Automotive Industry Suppliers, which concluded on Friday at the HUNGEXPO Budapest Congress and Exhibition Center.
The three exhibitions held simultaneously actually form a four-day business meeting that has played a defining role both domestically and in the region for years. The 450 exhibitors from 16 countries — including the most significant manufacturing, distribution, and service companies — showcased their developments over more than 12,000 square meters to professionals and interested parties seeking solutions and answers to the diverse challenges affecting their companies in the fields of industry and automotive manufacturing. According to the unanimous opinion of the exhibitors, MACH-TECH, INDUSTRY DAYS, and AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY provide a unique opportunity for representatives of different sectors to leverage inter-industry synergies and meet with their existing and future business partners.
In keeping with the event’s traditions, the exhibitors exposed themselves again this year: at professionally constructed and arranged stands, they spectacularly showcased complex production lines, revolutionary technologies, and autonomous robots capable of performing a wide variety of tasks.
Based on pre-registration and participation data, it can be said that the professional events, roundtable discussions, and training sessions accompanying the exhibitions were highly successful once again. Among the dozens of conferences and forums, the highlights included the 3rd Plastics Industry Conference by MMSZ, the “Welding and Manufacturing of Railway Vehicles” conference by Join-Trans organized by the Hungarian Welding Technology and Material Testing Association, the occupational safety conference held at the exhibition, and the conference by the Budapest and Pest County Chamber of Engineers.
More than 350 people visited the Application Zone “mini factory,” an imaginary semi-automatic production line where the organizers integrated the technologies of several companies to allow visitors to see the sub-processes of manufacturing in operation.
At the traditional Automotive Supplier B2B meeting organized by HIPA, MAGE, and MAJOSZ, 79 Hungarian automotive suppliers held direct negotiations with procurement representatives from 19 multinational automotive corporations. According to the preliminary online registration data, a total of 328 personal meetings took place, which can be considered a significant success.
The traditional competition for engineering students in Hungary, Techtogether Automotive Hungary, and the accompanying prize of 500,000 forints was won by the BME FRT team this time. The second place went to another team of Budapest University of Technology and Economics students, BME Motorsport. The third place was secured by StudentTechLab ELTE. A total of 9 teams participated in the competition, comprising 272 members.
On the third day of the exhibition, 35 students from 6 high schools participated in the Techtogether*Simulation Mechatronic Challenge competition.
At the opening ceremony, the IPAR NAPJAI – MACH-TECH GRAND PRIX were awarded, recognizing the best and most outstanding innovations as judged by the professional jury. According to the competition’s criteria, any modern, domestically marketed product, process, or technical service fitting the exhibition’s theme could enter. The list of awardees can be found here.
The next exhibition at HUNGEXPO in October will be ENVIRONTEC powered by ÖKOINDUSTRIA. We look forward to welcoming you!
2022
With a focus on developing hydrogen-based technology, Hungarian battery manufacturing and industrial robotization, Friday saw the conclusion of the 15th MACH-TECH, 9th INDUSTRY DAYS and 10th AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY exhibitions. At the HUNGEXPO Budapest Congress and Exhibition Center, over 400 exhibitors from 15 countries presented their products and services to nearly 15 thousand professional visitors.
Due to the pandemic, Hungary’s largest business-industrial gathering was only hosted virtually last year, which is why it was so important for domestic and international market operators to meet in person this year. Amongst other things, this was one of the subjects that Gábor Ganczer, CEO of Hungexpo Ltd., touched on at the opening ceremony. The host explained: a number of key changes have taken place at Hungexpo over the past one year. During the pandemic, the long-awaited congress center of the capital city was completed, all the pavilions were renewed and a new reception building was built at the main entrance. The exhibitors and visitors have started to return, which is a sign of optimism, added Gábor Ganczer.
László György, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology’s (ITM) State Secretary for Economic Planning and Regulation thanked the businesses for their partnership over the last two and a half years in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and for retaining their employees and workplaces throughout the crisis without postponing their investments. The State Secretary of the ITM emphasized that the Russian-Ukrainian war poses a threat to peace, stability, energy supply and the supply of industrial companies operating in Hungary due to the fragmentation of the supply chains.
At the exhibition’s opening ceremony, István Lepsényi, President of the Hungarian Hydrogen Technological Alliance signed a declaration of intent with the representatives of major corporations on the development of hydrogen-based freight transport and the related fuelling infrastructure in Hungary.
The INDUSTRY DAYS – MACH-TECH Grand Prix awards were also presented at the opening ceremony. GRAND PRIX awards were presented to the companies Abraziv Mérnöki Iroda és Gépgyártó Kft., Endrich Bauelemente Vertriebs GmbH, Losonczi Innovation Kft., Metal Trading & Consulting Tanácsadó és Kereskedelmi Kft., Pure Air Kft., Trigo Precíziós Méréstechnika Kft. and Weidmüller Kereskedelmi Kft.
This year saw the 9th INDUSTRY DAYS and 15th MACH-TECH exhibitions, where domestic and international industry world brands, market leaders as well as small and mid-sized enterprises presented their products, services, unique solutions and developments. The partner event of the assortment of industrial exhibitions, the domestic exhibition of automotive suppliers and operators, the 10th AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY exhibition, again provided an overview of the Hungarian market operators and innovations of the automotive manufacturing industry, while also serving as a forum where a number of domestic and international suppliers and service providers could meet one another.
The event was accompanied by numerous high quality attractions organised by professional partners and exhibitors. Amongst other things, these dealt with the subjects of e-mobility, battery manufacturing, the basics of welding technology, the opportunities inherent in digitalization, the recovery of polymers, paperless intralogistics, the development of the Hungarian hydrogen economy, German-Hungarian technologies, the future of occupational health and safety as well as 3D printing.
For the first time this year, the representatives of the welding industry organized presentations and workshops on all four days of the exhibition.
The organizers and the participants of the exhibition were both pleased that – just as in previous years – over 14,500 professional visitors successfully concluded their attendance at the four-day event.
This year also saw the 10th Techtogether Automotive Hungary engineer competition, where the engineer students of all the major higher education institutions of the country competed with one another. This year’s competition was won by BME Motorsport.
2021
Nearly 100 exhibitors and thousands of visitors participated in AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY International Trade Exhibition for Automotive Industry Suppliers that was held in HUNGEXPO Budapest Congress and Exhibition Center. Organized for the ninth time, the event featured such key themes as environment-friendly drivetrain alternatives, the development of hydrogen-based economy and Hungarian-Bavarian automobile industry relations.
This year’s event has seen the showcases of nearly 100 exhibitors, including professional stakeholders of the Hungarian and international automotive industry, Hungarian small and medium enterprises, car manufacturers and suppliers.
AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY was held in one of Hungexpo’s new pavilions; Pavilion E this year. Hungexpo has been revitalized over the last two years. They built two new columnless pavilions, a new reception building and a congress centre equipped with cutting-edge technology. All the old pavilions were renovated as well.
In focus: hydrogen
While the Hungarian economy has more or less returned to pre-pandemic normal, the automotive industry is still looking for the way out. These issues were also addressed by State Secretary László Palkovics of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology (ITM) in his exhibition-opening speech. The minister emphasized how important it was for Hungary to establish its position in the rising hydrogen-based technology as well. He also called the participants’ attention to the government’s recently adopted hydrogen strategy.
Organized by the ITM as part of Automotive Hungary, the professional conference called “Green future with hydrogen technology” featured presenters talking about Hungary’s excellent infrastructure for natural gas transportation and storage as well as the importance of finding out how this network could be used for hydrogen transportation and storage as well.
On a different subject, László Palkovics mentioned that Hungary was involved in some serious automotive industry development projects, and that there was a chance for Hungary to have a Formula 1 pilot again. In regards to that, he said Hungaroring was planned to undergo serious development projects such as the construction of an industrial park-like infrastructure next to the racetrack. Another key goal is to attract a Formula 1 team to Mogyoród with the new upgrades.
AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY International Trade Exhibition for Automotive Industry Suppliers is the most significant meeting of the year for automobile manufacturers. Since German enterprises are key partners for Hungarian automobile industry players, the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s Bavaria Forum attracted a lot of attention. The conference titled “The development and future trends of the Bavarian automobile industry” was held with a full house. The event’s core theme was how the changes of the automobile industry affected suppliers.
AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY has traditionally been a forum for professional visitors as well as business decision makers. Probably due to the economic difficulties of the past two years, there was a more intensive activity than usual at the B2B Suppliers’ Forum organized by the Association of the Hungarian Automotive Industry (MAGE), the Association of Hungarian Automotive Component Manufacturers (MAJOSZ) and the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA):nearly 170 business meetings were conducted among the 55 exhibitors and 14 integration (procurement) companies.
TECHTOGETHER – the engineering contest
For years, Hungarian universities and engineering training institutions have had a major role in the successes and innovations of the Hungarian automotive industry. This is how ITM State Secretary László Palkovics commented the fact that AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY once again hosted the competition organized by Autopro.hu. TECHTOGETHER AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY has traditionally been offering an opportunity for automotive engineering students to find new sponsors for their projects, while it is also an excellent pool for companies looking to recruit employees. (Due to the pandemic, a smaller group of sponsors and competitors only participated in the event online, but the use of the online space did not cause any disruption, according to the participants.)
The winner of this year’s competition was BME Formula Racing Team before runners-up Arrabona Racing Team and Szombathelyi Gépész. Altogether 14 teams participated in the competition in 2021.
2020
Despite the lower exhibitor and visitor turnout due to the coronavirus, the participants still had positive views on the recently concluded INDUSTRY DAYS International Industrial Trade Exhibition, which was concurrently hosted on this occasion with the AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY International Trade Exhibition for Automotive Industry Suppliers at the HUNGEXPO Budapest Congress and Exhibition Center. The business partners agreed that re-launching the economy depends, amongst other things, on whether companies find networking opportunities such as those offered by the current event. The organizers of the exhibition introduced exceptionally strict health and hygienic measures which were observed to minimise the risk of infection.
More: HERE
2019
According to the participants of the 7th AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY exhibition of international automotive industry suppliers and the concurrently organized Autótechnika-Autodiga exhibition, both events were highly successful in terms of their professional and business goals. Coming from 15 countries, the 200 exhibitors and the many professional programmes attracted over 10 000 visitors to HUNGEXPO Budapest Conference and Exhibition Center. More: HERE
Patronage of the event in 2019: Dr. László Palkovics, Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology
