Expectations were clearly exceeded, a good atmosphere prevailed and everything ran smoothly. The official figures published by organiser Adsale (Hong Kong / China; www.adsale.com.hk) show that this year’s “Chinaplas” (www.chinaplasonline.com) in Guangzhou attracted a total of 155,258 registered visitors over the four days of the exhibition (16 - 19 May), of which 40,048 – or 25.79% – came from abroad. This marks a new record. Visitor numbers were up 4.5% on Chinaplas 2016 in Shanghai, and, compared with the last fair staged in Guangzhou, just under 21% more interested parties attended the world’s second biggest plastics trade fair. The weather also looked kindly down on the event. While it was sultry, as is usual for this time of the year, the downpours previously experienced in this south China city during the fair were few and far between. This also kept the chaos on the roads in check – although a certain amount of congestion prevailed, traffic was not hopelessly gridlocked.

A sensational record was already achieved on the first two days of the exhibition, says Adsale, with a total of 97,181 visitors – 40,834 registered on 16 May and 56,347 on 17 May (with a quarter coming from countries outside of China). Hall 5.2, the German hall, was particularly well-filled, and the expert conferences on “Medical Plastics”, "Industry 4.0" and the newly introduced “Tech Talks” on different technological subjects also proved highly popular. “Made in Germany” is still very much in demand and also constitutes a benchmark for the Chinese suppliers. At the other end of the range were local, inexpensive, basic machine technologies tempting one or the other European converter to “give them a try at home”, while adopting caution.

The 3,485 exhibitors from 38 countries produced a particularly heterogeneous picture, ranging from highly professional stands with an international flair to small, local stands that were somewhat overwhelmed when it came to dealing with enquiries from abroad. But the general impression was that of an optimistic mood, the effective initiation of business between east and west, the introduction of new raw materials onto the market, especially bio-based ones and renewable raw materials for the world market as well as new machine technology for the Chinese market.

Plasteurope.com will be reporting on the exhibition in further detail soon.