MADRID -- Messe Frankfurt and the leading Spanish trade fair company IFEMA have announced plans to organize “Motortec Automechanika Ibérica” together. The first Motortec Automechanika Ibérica will be held March 29 through April 2, 2011, at the exhibition grounds in Madrid.

Motortec Automechanika Ibérica is the first event to be organized by Messe Frankfurt in Spain. Messe Frankurt's cooperation with IFEMA marks the first time that a major German trade fair company has brought one of its strongest event brands to Spain. Given the widespread influence of IFEMA on the Iberian peninsula, the two organizers felt that there is great potential for developing market strategies together.

Motortec is the pioneering trade fair for the Spanish and Portuguese markets and receives extensive support from all automotive industry associations. Automechanika Frankfurt is the leading trade fair in the automotive sector, now boasting 14 events in key markets around the globe.

“The cooperation is based on two pillars,” said Detlef Braun, member of the board of management of Messe Frankfurt, “firstly on the transfer of know-how with regard to trade fair marketing strategies, and secondly on the potential of Motortec Automechanika Ibérica for promoting the internationalization of its exhibitors.”

This will be achieved through Messe Frankfurt’s sales network, which covers more than 150 countries, and through the worldwide presence of Automechanika, which has 13 events outside Germany.

Luis Eduardo Cortés Muñoz, CEO of IFEMA, added, “Following the consolidation on the Iberian peninsula, we are pursuing the goal – together with our partner – of opening up the European market to Ibero-American companies and of bolstering the influence of Spanish companies in Latin America.”

After Germany, Spain is the second-largest market in Europe for automotive components, with sales in the region of 30 billion Euro (about $41 billion USD), of which some 18 billion Euro ($25 billion) is generated abroad. The Spanish industry consists of some 950 companies, employing around 210,000 people. There are also positive growth forecasts of between 10 and 15 percent in the area of repairs and maintenance, owing to the crisis, the strict conditions set by the state and increased competition on the market.