I attended the TECMA-EXPO Manejo in Mexico City, a four-day exhibition jointly organised by the materials handling (Expo Manejo) and machine tool (TECMA) sectors of the Mexican Association of Machinery Distributors. The exhibition was in the Santa Fe Convention Centre of Mexico City which is the largest and most modern facility of its kind.

Nearly 8000 visitors attended but a mistake in the registration system prevented us from knowing how many came for TECMA and how many because of Expo Manejo.

However, 90 per cent of visitors took advantage of both exhibits. Obviously if you use machine tools, you also need to move or stack your products and vice versa. Among the truck dealers that participated were Hyster, Yale, Raymond, Moffett, Palfinger and SunSoon. I was surprised that all the Japanese brands backed out, some from the start and others at the last minute despite having made prior space reservations. I have no idea why the Japanese backed out. It is a strange coincidence though.

The Expo Manejo is about 20 years old but it has not been held on a continuous schedule. It is sponsored by the materials handling sector of AMDM (the Mexican Association of Machinery Distributors). Sometimes it joins with similar exhibitions. This time it was the machine tools sector and earlier the logistics sector (Expo Logistica).

Currently there are no plans for the next Expo Manejo but it is usually held every two years, so you can expect it again in 2007. The Mexican forklift market consumes around 5000 new forklifts a year.