This year, METS will once again be held at the RAI together with Europort, the commercial marine exhibition.

Amsterdam RAI, which organises METS in conjunction with the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA), says that despite the general economic malaise, the desire to take part in the trade exhibition is even greater than last year.

"After seeing a record number of exhibitors last year, we are already seeing that firms are anxious to be certain of getting a stand at METS, " said Farouk Nefzi, METS product manager.

"This is resulting in earlier bookings than previous years, " he added, pointing out that 75% of the exhibition floor space has already been reserved.

Among the attractions will be the Marina Equipment Pavilion which was successfully launched last year and was the product of cooperation between Amsterdam RAI and Marina World.

This year's show will follow that success with providers of products and services for the marina sector and a marina equipment seminar scheduled.

A new feature is the Composite Pavilion, which is the fall-out from the ill-fated IBEX Europe attempt a couple of years ago.

Europort runs as the same time as METS (METS registration gets you into Europort as well), offering lots of products and services the superyacht sector will find useful, and The Yacht Report is again running its Superyacht Trail.

Visitors can pre-register for the show online at www.metstrade.com and exhibitors will find lots of useful information there as well.

METS 2003 is open from 10.00 to 18.00 on Tuesday 18 and Wednesday November 19 and from 10.00 to 17.00 on Thursday November 20.

STOP PRESS - As we closed for press we heard METS 2003 is now sold out, with a waiting list for space.