Malaysia Strengthens Position As Scientific Engineering Products Supplier In Germany

By Manik Mehta FRANKFURT, Nov 14 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has made the transition from a former supplier of low-end products to an exporter of highly-sophisticated scientific and engineering products to German companies. It has strengthened its position as a supplier of sophisticated scientific and engineering products in Germany. The improved range of products exhibited by Malaysian companies at some of Germany's prestigious trade fairs also reflects the evolutionary upstaging of the country whose quality standards and business delivery terms are appreciated by German and Western buyers whose reticence against cheap products from other Asian countries, notably China, is to the advantage of Malaysian suppliers. While China continues to supply the lower-end products, there is considerable skepticism being voiced about quality standards and delivery terms of the Chinese. In the coming week, Malaysia will be participating in the world's biggest trade fair for medical scientific equipment and accessories. The three-day trade fair called Medica will be held in Duesseldorf beginning Nov 16. A contingent of 29 exhibitors from Malaysia will exhibit their range of products at the show, amid fierce competition, not only from low-end producers but also the upper-end and more expensive products from Western countries. Many Western suppliers are, in fact, having their products subcontracted in less expensive Asian countries. Malaysia, although more expensive than China in terms of production and labour costs, has better quality products. The Medica exhibition will afford Malaysian companies an opportunity to market their products on a platform that attracts international buyers. Medica also provides an opportunity to finalise deals that could take business to the next level of relationship beyond the mere buying and selling -- from simple trading partner to financial and technological collaboration. Many of Malaysia's exhibits on display at Medica are not the run-of-the-mill kind of products such as medical gloves, an area in which Malaysia has acquired specialisation and near monopoly, despite fierce competition from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Indeed, according to the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) office in Frankfurt, the products on display at Medica will include trauma orthopedic implants, durable medical equipment (hospital beds, etc.), hydraulic stretchers, fracture split, orthopedic implantable devices, disposal medical devices for infusion therapy, intravenous infusion set, blood infusion set, and many more. "Malaysia is a net exporter of health products," said the Frankfurt-based Senior Trade Commissioner, Sabri Ab Rahman, in an interview with Bernama today. He said in 2010 Malaysia's export of health products amounted to RM12.3 billion while imports amounted to RM6.4 billion. "Major health products exported from Malaysia included medical devices subsector (surgical and examination gloves; catheters, syringes, needles and sutures; dental and ophthalmic instruments and appliances) which accounted for 91.9 per cent of Malaysia's total exports of health products," he said. Sabri noted that last year, Malaysia's exports of pharmaceutical products amounted to only RM998.1 million or some 8.1 per cent of the total exports of health products. Malaysia is currently the world's leading producer and exporter of catheters and surgical and examination gloves, supplying 80 per cent of the world's market for catheters and 80 per cent for rubber gloves. Sabri said Malaysia's exports of health products in the January-July period of last year rose 18.04 per cent to RM7.68 billion (US$1=RM3.14) compared with RM6.51 billion in the corresponding period. Besides medical devices, Malaysia is also making a dent in the highly sophisticated market of aerospace engineering. A Cyberjaya-based company, Strand Aerospace Malaysia Sdn Bhd,has carved a niche for itself by bagging a RM1 contract from a first-tier supplier to Airbus for doing some highly-sophisticated metal fatigue testing work. It is a start and both Strand and Matrade are confident that this will open up doors not only for Strand but also for other Malaysian companies. Strand's Chief Operating Officer Naguib Mohd Nor, who initiated the talks on providing the services through a first-tier supplier to Airbus, will visit Hamburg, between Nov 14 and 16, to try and expand the ambit of business to cover more services. In its corporate matchmaking exercise, Matrade Frankfurt has organised meetings for Naguib with a number of German companies that operate in the field of aerospace engineering. -- BERNAMA