Global buyers for Sanctuary Cove Boat show

by Powerboat-world.com on 22 May 2007 More than 20 international buying groups are expected to attend this week's Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show with Austrade hopeful it will lead to added export sales for the industry.

Manager of Austrade's Marine Industry Network, Leigh Willmot, told the Gold Coast Bulletin that ‘Buyer delegations from Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and China were among those keen to source Australia's marine industry expertise.’

‘The domestic marine industry turns over more than $5.5 billion a year and employs more than 29,000 people. More importantly, the marine industry generates export business of more than $700 million each year and much of this business is sourced at international boat shows such as Sanctuary Cove,' he said.

'For example, some of the Gold Coast businesses securing deals at last year's Sanctuary Cove show included Riviera, which signed up six new dealers for export to markets including Singapore, Korea, New Caledonia and China, while Precision Cruisers sold five boats valued at $11 million, with three of these going to overseas buyers.'

‘Among buyer delegates lured by Austrade to this year's boat show is a group from Hong Kong's Legend Club Company, which is due to open a marina in August this year in Macau and is sourcing suppliers for the project's set-up and management.

‘Malaysia's Explorer Marine Centre is seeking new products for boat building, trailer manufacture and marine hardware and accessories, and Taiwan's Cruise Line Yachts is looking to source electronic navigation and GPS systems and components for yachts.

The 19th annual Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show is staged from Thursday May 24 to Sunday, May 27.

Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show general manager Barry Jenkins said last week 'Sanctuary Cove is the largest boat show in exhibitor numbers in Australia with this year’s record of more than 450 – beating our previous record of 423 exhibitors in 2006,' said

'We expect to have more than 400 boats on water plus hundreds of other boats and marine products on show during the event,' he said. 'We know there are 25 world launches and close to 50 Australian marine product releases.'