ArabWood to debut at Expo Centre Sharjah on February 6

PDA Trade Fairs, part of the Bangalore based Pradeep Deviah & Associates, is dedicated to organising technology focused expositions and conventions. Expo Centre Sharjah, on the other hand, is the exhibition wing of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and has been the organiser of several premier B2B events since 1977.

The state-of-the-art convention and exhibition venue is possibly the only facility in the region that caters to the complete requirements of the exhibitors on site.

'Expo Centre Sharjah had successfully organized WoodWorking Middle East, a similar focused exhibition for the regional woodworking sector, earlier this year,' said Mr. Saif Al Midfa, Director General of Expo Centre Sharjah.

WoodWorking Middle East hosted 30 leading companies representing some of the most sought after brands in the global woodworking industry.

The show featured the full requirements of the woodworking industry starting from wood/panels to machinery, coatings, tools & equipment, furniture accessories including the entire range of veneers, plywood, laminates, glues, lacquers, fittings, and total supplies for woodworking machineries and consumables.

Countries from which a majority of the brands were displayed at the show included Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Oman, Portugal, Taiwan (ROC), and USA, besides the UAE.

'The debut edition of ArabWood, which will be held next year at Expo Centre Sharjah, is expected to be bigger in terms of occupied exhibition space, number of exhibitors, as well as visitor turnout. Two major factors that will to a large extent contribute towards the success of ArabWood are the facts that it is being organised by two of the premier exhibition companies that has considerable experience in organising B2B exhibitions and also that Expo Centre Sharjah is the only exhibitions company in the region that had already held a successful exhibition with exactly the same exhibit profile,' said Mr. Saif Al Midfa.

The WoodWorking Middle East exhibition in 2006 attracted 2,638 trade visitors with 1,579 visitors from the GCC region including the UAE.

Mr. Saif Al Midfa further said that ArabWood was aiming to become the Middle East's largest and most comprehensive sourcing platform for the WoodWorking industry.

'The regional boom in the construction sector has created a massive demand for WoodWorking machinery and related accessory and products. ArabWood with its unique and exclusive profile will be a platform that will be dedicated to meeting the complete requirements of the rapidly growing woodworking industry in the Middle East,' he said.

The world market for forestry and woodworking reached USD $ 92,312 million in 2005. Of this, Europe was the largest market with USD $ 42,588 million followed by Asia with USD $ 19,932 million. The Middle East's share was around USD $ 4,907 million.

ArabWood will attract carpenters, joinery managers, furniture manufacturers, kitchen equipment manufacturers, shop fitting specialists, fenestration manufacturers, exhibition stand contractors, carpentry shop managers of construction companies, architects, general managers, procurement managers, estimators, and planning and design managers from the MENA region, the Indian sub-continent as well as CIS countries.

ArabWood will be hosted at the Expo Centre Sharjah venue with the support of SCCI.