bauma 2016 – the world's leading trade fair for construction machinery, building material machines, mining machines, construction vehicles and equipment – and a seven-day show of superlatives, attracted around 580,000 visitors from 200 countries to Munich between April 11 and 17. That’s a rise of more than nine percent. After Germany, the top ten countries of origin among the visitors were Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, UK, Sweden, the Russian Federation, Poland and the Czech Republic. A total of 3,423 exhibitors – 1,263 from Germany and 2,160 from abroad – from 58 countries presented their products, developments and innovations on a record 605,000 sq.mtr of exhibition space. Exhibitors from outside Germany accounted for 63 per cent of the total – higher than ever before.

Klaus Dittrich, Chairman & CEO of Messe München, is delighted: “The response from the participants this year was amazing. The visitors at bauma always come looking to invest, but this year the exhibitors’ order books filled up much faster than expected. Many exhibitors are talking about a record level of demand at bauma 2016. And that is an extremely positive sign in this current uncertain climate.” Johann Sailer, Chairman of the VDMA Association for Construction Machinery and Building Material Machines, agrees: “bauma is the ideal platform for presenting innovative new developments, because it has a big impact in the industry around the world. Again in 2016 the world’s largest show of construction machinery will deliver impetus for further growth in our sector.”

As well as breaking records in terms of exhibitor and visitor numbers and exhibition space, bauma is also a great place for filling the order books. Stefan Heissler, a member of the Board of Directors of Liebherr-International AG, confirms: “bauma 2016 was a tremendous success for Liebherr. We received many orders from a wide variety of different markets. In some segments our expectations were even exceeded.” For Michael Heidemann, Vice-Chairman of the Management Board of Zeppelin, noted “that bauma 2016 has once again shown everyone that it does indeed boost innovation and it has lived up to its reputation for being the leading trade fair.” Jürgen and Stefan Wirtgen, Managing Partners in the Wirtgen Group, can only agree with this assessment: “bauma as the leading trade fair has always been a kind of barometer for the industry and from the start it had a very special significance for our company. Our presentation at this year’s bauma is the most successful so far in the history of the company.” The mining section at bauma also received a very positive response in this context, as Erwin Schneller, Managing Director of SBM Minerals, reports: “bauma is very international. We had visitors from Chile to Canada, from China to Russia, from Africa to Norway. My personal highlight was that we signed up some unexpected sales at the show.”

The show attracted high quality trade visitors from all over the world. Alexander Schwörer, Managing Director of Peri, agrees: “For us bauma 2016 was a tremendous success. We are very satisfied with the response and with the high quality of the trade visitors.” Also impressed was Frank W Reschke, Sales Director and Member of the Management Board of Masa: “We are very happy with how the show went. Right from day one we were welcoming a constant stream of guests from all over the world at our booth. The quality of the trade audience is first rate, as it was three years ago, and we had some excellent business talks.”

One other characteristic of bauma is that for the exhibiting companies it is the No. 1 platform for premiering their innovations to the trade audience worldwide. John L. Garrison, CEO & President of the Terex Corporation, emphasized: “Every three years bauma offers us the unique opportunity to meet with customers from around the world. As the largest trade show in our industry, it is a good opportunity to showcase new products and services.” And Masatoshi Morishita, Managing Director & CEO at Komatsu Europe, sums it up neatly: “We make use of the attention bauma attracts to present our innovations. This event is a milestone for the industry. It’s not only Komatsu that tries to get certain machines ready in time for bauma. This trade show really drives the entire industry forward.”

The next bauma takes place from April 8 to 14, 2019 in Munich.