CeMAT Australia 2025 has again revealed there is as much interest in, and appetite for, scalable and cost-effective automation within the materials handling sector, as the developers can produce. Yet automation is not a foregone conclusion for all businesses.

CeMAT has wrapped up for another year with more than 5,000 people attending the materials handling and intralogistics event, held at the Dome at Sydney Olympic Park in conjunction with sister show, Industrial Transformation Australia and co-located with the Processing & Packaging Pavilion - powered by APPMA.

This year there were more than 200 exhibitors, with some of the largest exhibits seen at the event to date, while 86 speakers shared their expertise in the Knowledge Theatre.

There was a contingent of new, or relatively new, Chinese exhibitors vying for the attention of potential partners and distributors at CeMAT as they try to break into or expand their footprint within the Australian market.

Some of these exhibitors, including XPMC and JAC Forklifts competed with Hangcha Australia and Toyota with its automation stablemate Vanderlande, for the largest number of machines on show, while some of the world’s largest materials handling equipment manufacturers were not present including Jungheinrich, Crown, Linde and Hyster-Yale. 

While the Chinese contingent was a hot topic at the event, nothing was as talked about as automation.

Automation is “no longer optional”

Delivering his State of the Nation keynote address to open the event, Julian Brancaccio, NSW director with the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA), told those attending that “automation is no longer optional”.

While larger companies wanting to compete on a world stage may find themselves in positions to automate quickly, with no shortage of businesses keen to develop tailored solutions, smaller companies may continue to find that automation is out of reach and possibly, not suitable.

Jack Jiang, sales manager with Changzhou Yi-Lift (Yi-Lift), says those who can automate are doing so now as they continue to face skilled labour shortages which are expected to be an issue well into the future.

“In China, a lot of young people don’t want to work in warehouses or factories,” Jiang says. “They want jobs where they are not inside doing repetitive work.

“And while we have older workers, they will retire and when that happens, automation is going to be needed, which is why big factories are investing heavily in automation now.”

YK Chew, South East Asia Oceania VP with Libiao, agrees saying the labour shortage facing the sector globally is forcing companies which can afford the outlay, to automate where they can.

However, Bob van der Wild, director with Australian-headquartered INWASO which represents a number of European companies, warns while a lot of companies are looking at automation, many are becoming increasingly cautious because of the speed at which the technology is evolving.

“Forklift companies are stepping back a bit because everyone wants to see what’s happening with automation before they make some decision,” van der Wild adds.

Combilift’s Australian country manager, Chris Littlewood, says the prohibitive cost of automation for some means they encourage clients to optimise their warehouse space and operations before automating, “because it’s a lower cost approach”.

“There will be greater automation in large, multi-national companies, but some smaller companies don’t have the scale to fit well with automation,” he adds.

Ann Hofmans, CEO of Forkliftaction, who visited the show and met with many exhibitors, agrees it is clear automation is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

"Listening to logistics integrators present at the show, like Dematic and Knapp, I learnt that automation can also go very wrong if not properly planned," Hofmans adds. "Not every process benefits from automation and not every location is designed to efficiently install automated applications.

"Even your insurance provider can stand in the way of automation. Getting professional advice and taking the long path of setting objectives based on realistic potential outcomes, is crucial for success. Starting ‘small’ seems to be the way to go for most businesses”.

Tariff uncertainty causing concern

Another key topic at CeMAT Australia this year, is the ongoing uneasiness around the US Administration’s tariffs on imports, which are adding to the reluctance by some to make decisions around capital expenditure, including materials handling equipment.

Libiao's Chew, says geo-politics and tariffs “are creating uncertainty”.

“We don’t know what the impacts of these will be,” Chew adds. “We don’t know what it means for business. It’s creating a lot of risk which people are trying to [mitigate] and because of that, they are not making decisions quickly.

“So things may slow this year, but there is still investment happening.”

Roger Qiu, vice general manager - exports with MiMA, agrees saying “tariffs have really affected our export ability”.

“Distributors are waiting to see what happens with tariffs before they make decisions,” Qiu continues. “It’s been three months now and we need to accept it. Everyone is affected by the tariffs and people can’t wait anymore.”

Yi-Lift’s Jack Jiang, concurs adding “everyone” was impacted by the tariffs when they were first announced, “but things are getting back to normal now” and CAPEX decisions are starting to be made again.

Sentiment for the future

Hubtex managing director, Bruce Peatman, is optimistic about the future, despite what he describes as a flat start to the year.

“The last six months have been rather slow,” Peatman says. “Customers are just a little bit quiet. We are finding service technicians are not as busy are they used to be which says a bit about the market.

“But from June 30, there seems to have been a bit of an uptick in activity.”

Exhibitors at CeMAT Australia also report a healthy number of inquiries and sales leads.

Among these was Miya Gong, global marketing director with Seer Robotics.

“This is our second time attending CeMAT Australia, and we’ve definitely seen the show grow,” Gong says. “Compared to last year in Melbourne, the scale is larger, and there’s noticeably more energy on the floor.

“What stood out most to me this time was the level of engagement from visitors. Many came with real project needs and concrete application scenarios.”

With a rallying market, some more certainty around the US’s tariff regime and the influx of Chinese OEMs, it will be interesting to see if these same talking points remain at CeMAT Australia 2026.