After the show is before the show - 2016 - The year of the big plastic shows

Despite general beliefs that the slumping economy would bring harshness and challenges to the industry, CHINAPLAS 2016, having closed on April 28, achieved remarkable results beyond all expectations. Both exhibitors and visitors were engaged fully at the fairground amid an active and dynamic business atmosphere. With infinite business opportunities, the 30th CHINAPLAS demonstrated a promising future for the industry.

CHINAPLAS, world’s No.2 plastics & rubber trade fair, was held from April 25 to 28, 2016 in Shanghai, PR China. The number of visitors amounted to 148,575 in four days, setting a new record since its debut in 1983. Compared to the show held in Shanghai in 2014, the number of visitors this year increased by about 14 %. As CHINAPLAS is well-recognized by the plastics & rubber industries as well as their downstream sectors globally, and the gradual improvement of the living standards of many developing countries keeps stimulating the demand for consumer goods and packaging. The number of overseas visitors this year reached 39.454, setting a record that represents 26.55% of the total. 

Apart from the significant growth in the number of visitors, CHINAPLAS 2016 covered an exhibition area of over 240,000 sq. metres with a participation of 3,335 exhibitors from 39 countries and regions, of which 35% were overseas exhibitors and 14% joined CHINAPLAS for the first time.

In Shanghai we had the chance to visit with some companies of the PET packaging industry about and talked about Chinaplas and current challenges. Read on to find out more.

Markus Juppe, Director Sales & Marketing, Intravis GmbH

“This year’s Chinaplas has been a success for us as we have met a broad variety of customers and interested parties from many different countries. Particularly interesting to us were the many visitors from the Southeast Asian Region like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea and other countries. All in all, we have seen a cautiously optimistic spirit throughout the Chinaplas. We have also noticed a stronger quality awareness among the Chinese producers and end customers. Our estimation is that at the current shakeout, only those producers who deliver a very good quality will survive. With our inspection systems, we help them to do so.”

Carsten Lurz, Head of Sales and Service, MHT Mold & Hotrunner Technology AG

“The current market situation in China could be described as having sufficient PET preform tool capacities to allow the major Chinese producers to meet all the demand of the drinks industry. Of course, there are still projects and calls for tenders for new investments; however this year they are simply not comparable with the boom last year in terms of quantity and volume. Chinaplas was nevertheless a huge success for us, just as in previous years. The show once again emphasized the fact that it is one of the most important international exhibitions for the plastics processing industry. We welcomed visitors from the local Chinese and Asian market and others, including the Middle East, Africa, India, Eastern Europe as well as South America. We perceive the exhibition as a good indicator for the coming K exhibition, where an even greater volume of visitors awaits us as exhibitors, as the event lasts twice as long.”

Tech-Long Inc.

“I feel the Chinaplas show was very good for Tech-Long. We had visitors from all of the world which is great at a time where we are increasing our investments in Servicing customers from overseas. Visitors got to see for excample our PET stretch blow molding Machine, that was making Hotfill Bottles at very fast speeds and delivers to customers very low energy consumption rates and delivers the lowest total cost of ownership. The quality of the visitors were of excellent! China of course had the highest representation which is to be expected but we had visitors to our two booth’s from every major company in the world. Key Engineering Executives from North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Tech-Long China continues to gain market share and improve its position against European OEM manufacturer’s. That said the market declined in 2015 and 2016 looks to be another challenging year. Tech-Long USA is meeting expectations. The US business was founded by Johnson Zhang only in late 2011. It is still a relatively new business. Our installed base is increasing and we have sold and installed many machines. Our new G5 PET stretch blow molder has done especially well as clients learn that the technology is as good or better than any machine on the market. In addition, Tech-Long has invested significantly in local service and spare parts so customers realize that Tech-Long is a very viable long-term business partner. Tech-Long has a small installed base in Europe already. Short term we have no plans to invest in Europe as we want to continue to focus our resources on the “Americas” ensuring that our Service model is fully implemented and recognized by our customers as a best in class service provider for PET Packaging equipment. We want to finish the job first in the “Americas” and then take the model to other markets.” 

Karel Keersmaekers, Managing Director, NISSEI ASB Europe BV 

“It has been a while since I have participated in the Chinaplas fair in Shanghai, but I could witness that it has grown to what seems to be the second largest gathering of the plastics industry following the K fair in Dusseldorf. There was an great amount of overseas visitors from Europe, the CIS countries and North Africa, the region that falls under my responsibilities and it shows to me that the Chinaplas fair is rapidly turning more international. This internationalization gave our company the ideal opportunity to present our latest development in 1 step and 1,5 step ISBM machines to a wide audience.  The icing on the cake  has been the fact that we could conclude several deals on the show with existing and new clients.  Chinaplas was overall very successful for Nissei ASB and it is certainly an exhibition that will get our attention in the years to come.”

Oliver Lindenberg, VP Strategic Account Development,Milacron

“Milacron has displaced the products on two booths, one for the APPT (advanced plastic processing technology ) and one for the MDCS (melt delivery and control systems groups) to have more focus on the two key topics tooling and  processing. Visitors have been received from various industries but with a focus in packaging , electronic  household, automotive and medical which seem to become the focus in China now. A lot of customers were interested in the complete system offering from MIlacron, combining the technology from Milacron machines, (Milacron, FERROMATIK, and Uniloy) and Mold-Masters and DME for hotrunners and mold components  and controller technologies. Also a lot of global strategic clients of Mialcron visits the two locations. Though a lot of local competition is targeting the Milacron brands, overall existing customers state  we are the high end global supplier, they want to partner with, they are interested in new technology and are looking how to fit to their business into our offering to grow together. Overall we have another very successful show in 2016.”  

David Skala, VP & GM Uniloy, Milacron

“Our IBS85HY (hybrid version) assembled here at our Milacron China plant  with a 12-cavity mold producing 20 ml  eye-drops bottles in HDPE. The new IBS All-Electric series has been completely redesigned with the aim of optimising the clamp area. The movement of the clamp mechanism has been simplified utilising one servomotor for each clamp (injection and blow). For that reason, the new design offers better accessibility and easier maintenance. This concept also makes it simpler to install laminar flow devices, for applications where the mold area must be air conditioned to comply with stringent cleanliness specifications.”

Gao Rong Biao, General Manager of Zhejiang, DEMARK 

Satisfaction towards CHINAPLAS 2016 was also expressed by Mr. GAO Rong Biao, General Manager of Zhejiang DEMARK Machinery Co., Ltd. “We met plenty of professional visitors who mainly came from mainland China, South America and the Middle East. They were interested in injection blowing machines, plastic containers, blow molds, etc. Not only did we meet a great number of potential buyers, but also were we able to enhance our company’s brand image in CHINAPLAS.”

Sara Masiero, Corporate Communication Manager, PIOVAN 

“From our viewpoint, it was another succesfull edition. We’re very satisfied with Chinaplas 2016. The interest in our products was extremely high. We have received positive feedback also for Penta material handling automation systems and Aquatech cooling solutions (Penta and Aquatech are companies of the Piovan Group).  For the Piovan Group, Chinaplas was defenitely the right mix of networking, audience attraction and media exposure. In our experience, the quality of visitors is good, both in terms of “numbers” and the individual background and qualification. More precisely the right number of visitors interested in our products and in our very specific industry expertise like for instance in the PET preform and bottles production. Piovan has been in the China market for over 17 years and has accumulated extensive local expertise in designing, developing and adapting European designed equipment to the local market needs. Understanding the local market requirements in features and functionality from the very beginning allows us to be one of the local leaders in the plastics material handling and now also in the cooling systems, since in our factory in Suzhou also chillers and cooling systems, Aquatech branded, are manufactured. Despite the slowing down of the growth of Chinese market, in year 2015, we performed well and kept on investing in our factory plant in Suzhou, to improve our sales and tecnical organization and increase the market share, by providing services and solutions focused on the Asian market needs.”

Referring to the development direction of CHINAPLAS, Ms. Ada Leung pointed out that raising the visitor quality and the technological level of exhibits are the primary targets for sustainable development of the show. She explained, “At CHINAPLAS 2016, there were more than 40 kinds of ground-breaking technologies which were newly launched either in the world or Asia, and we were very happy to see that happen. It implied that exhibitors recognized CHINAPLAS as an important platform for the release of new technology. CHINAPLAS is not only a platform for sourcing and technology know-how exchange, but also a value-added, professional and technology-oriented trade fair. The development trend of CHINAPLAS is well-matched with the technology upgrade and specific needs from downstream high-end buyers.”

Next CHINAPLAS will be held on May 16-19, 2017 in Guangzhou, PR China.