– North America’s largest auto parts exhibition AAPEX is back –
– The Korean Pavilion was successfully held with the participation of 11 domestic companies –
From November 2 to 4, 'AAPEX 2021', the largest auto parts aftermarket exhibition in North America, was successfully held at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas. Like other large-scale exhibitions, AAPEX 2020, which was planned last year, was canceled due to the deepening of the pandemic. Returning to the same offline event as before, this year's AAPEX 2021 was significantly reduced in size compared to the past, but it received a much greater response than expected, demonstrating that it is still one of the largest automotive aftermarket events in the world.
Exhibition Overview
AAPEX, a comprehensive exhibition of auto parts aftermarket representing North America, is a key event covering the global auto parts industry worth about $2 trillion. It is known as a very important annual event that determines the AAPEX, which has been held every year since 1969 and celebrated its 52nd anniversary this year, is a long-lived event with a long tradition, and is jointly hosted by the Auto Care Association and Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association every year.
Traditionally, it is a large event that has attracted more than 2500 participating companies and 16 visitors, but this year, 616 companies, significantly reduced compared to the previous year, participated in the With Corona era. At the exhibition site, representative global companies in the auto parts industry, such as Akebono Brake Corporation, CRC Industries, and Denso, as well as Korean companies such as Hankook Tire, Mando, Sebang Battery, Sangsin Brake, and Hyundai Sungwoo Casting could also be seen. In addition to the mandatory mask wearing guidelines, thorough safety management was implemented by obligating all participants to prove vaccination or a COVID-19 PCR test.
AAPEX 2021 site scene
AAPEX 2021 site details
At the AAPEX 2021 site, various visitors including auto parts retailers, auto parts warehouse-type distributors, parts wholesalers, auto mechanics, auto dealers, and engine manufacturers, including buyers from a wide range of automotive industries, were able to be found.
A total of 616 participating companies were classified into more than 70 sub-categories, including automotive interior/exterior accessories, thermostats, batteries and accessories, body repair-related products, brakes, cooling, engines, fuels, filters, oils, These include lighting, paints and coatings, controls and suspensions, tires, wipers, diagnostic equipment, and automotive computer systems. In addition to these traditional auto parts fields, newly emerging fields such as 3D printing, augmented reality (AR), and autonomous vehicles also drew attention.
Overall, the scale of this year's event, which was smaller than in the past, showed that the participation in the national pavilion was also significantly reduced, but among them, the Korean pavilion, as well as national pavilions in Turkey, Italy, and Taiwan, received a lot of attention from visitors.
Turkey, Italy and Taiwan national pavilions
The exhibition was largely composed of the first and second floors of Sands Expo and the Caesars Forum. On the first floor of the Sands Expo, the 'Repair Shop HQ' section, which constitutes an immersive maintenance environment, and the 'Joe's Garage' section, where various demonstrations are performed by reproducing an actual car body shop. This is a much larger structure than before, and other tools and equipment sections, heat transfer and air conditioning sections, diagnostics and telematics sections, tire sections and lecture spaces have been arranged. On the 1nd floor of Sands Expo, the main exhibition space, exhibitors from the automotive parts field other than those mentioned above welcomed the visitors. In addition to the exhibition, various keynote speeches and beneficial educational and lecture programs were prepared in which leaders of various global auto parts industry participated.
AAPEX 2021 Korean Pavilion Tour
KOTRA, which has been hosting the Korean Pavilion for the 1998rd time since its first participation in 23, supported the participation and marketing activities of 11 Korean companies seeking to advance into the global auto parts industry jointly with Ain Global at this year's event. This year, the Korean Pavilion welcomed visitors by utilizing a wider booth space and a more accessible location than in the past. , PCB equipment, undercoating, etc.
APPEX 2021 Korean Pavilion Scenery
Korean companies participating in the Korea Pavilion have received great interest and response from various buyers. In particular, several participating companies in the Korean Pavilion, including Samgi Industries, Namyeong Light Bulb, and NIDS, continued meaningful consultations with buyers. It is considered to have laid the foundation for further development. A variety of buyers, large and small, including large auto parts distributors, visited the Korean Pavilion, and there were many buyers interested in diversifying import sources due to the additional tariff burden caused by the US trade sanctions with China that have continued for several years. Buyer Company B, who visited the Korean Pavilion, said in an interview with the KOTRA Los Angeles Trade Center, “We are looking for the relevant A/S parts needed in South America, where the used market for Korean automobiles such as Hyundai and Kia is quite large, especially exterior parts or air “I am very interested in conditioning related parts,” he said.
Considering that expectations for offline exhibitions were not high due to the pandemic, this year's AAPEX Korean Pavilion was able to experience a larger-than-expected number of visitors and a heated atmosphere overall. Accordingly, the satisfaction of the participating companies, which were mostly companies participating in the AAPEX for the first time, was also very high, and it is understood that several companies are considering continuing participation in the future.
Significance and Implications
19, along with the COVID-2020 pandemic, has come as a great challenge for the US auto parts aftermarket market as well. However, the industry, which has overcome the economic crisis of the past relatively well, expects to overcome this period as well. The Auto Care Association also predicts that “the US auto parts market will maintain a recovery trend from the pandemic and will grow by about 2021% by the end of 12”, and positive signs are already observed.
According to the Auto Care Association, aftermarket auto parts sales in the U.S. will reach about $2020 billion in 1700, and the size of the U.S. auto parts aftermarket market, including heavy duty vehicles, is expected to reach about $2022 billion by 4480. . The auto parts supply industry accounts for the largest portion of all manufacturing jobs in the United States, creating about 2 direct jobs as of February this year and contributing to about 90 million jobs in related industries. As such, the auto parts aftermarket market is one of the key industries in the United States and is expected to continue to grow in the future. As Taesung, a Korean pavilion participating company, has attracted the attention of many buyers with its undercoating to prevent short circuits at the bottom of electric vehicles, the field of electric vehicle-related parts is expected to rise rapidly in the future.
Although the scale of AAPEX 2021 was significantly reduced compared to the previous one, it provided an opportunity to meet industry members by combining various technologies and products from the auto parts aftermarket, one of the key industries in the United States, and the fact that more visitors than expected. It is significant in that it successfully attracted In particular, it is evaluated that it drew a good response from many members who waited for the offline networking site to resume for a year and a half, when large-scale exhibitions were completely suspended after the pandemic.
As such, AAPEX is expected to be a good opportunity for Korean companies to enter the US auto parts market in the future to identify market trends and continuously expose their products to buyers. In addition, due to the subsequent US trade sanctions with China, many US companies, which in the past sourced most of their auto parts from China, are diversifying their import sources. Therefore, Korea and other competing countries can use this as an opportunity to expand exports, and since most buyers prefer products with quality and technology as well as price competitiveness, this needs to be reflected in their entry strategy.
Source: AAPEX 2021 Official Guide and Official Website, Auto Care Association, IBIS World, and other KOTRA Los Angeles Trade Center materials