The 10th edition of “ArabPlast”, held in the United Arab Emirates from 8-11 January 2011, attracted almost 19,000 visitors, reports fair organiser Al Fajer Information & Services (Dubai / UAE; www.alfajer.net). The annual event was held at the same time as the “Tekno Tube Arabia” fair for industrial machinery, which is in its 20th year.

Commenting on this year’s events, Satish Khanna, general manager at Al Fajer, said: “The fact that ArabPlast and Tekno Tube Arabia 2011 have attracted 800 exhibitors representing 40 countries and the increase of 25% in the display area compared with last edition is clear evidence that the UAE is the ideal platform to target the Middle East market.”

The acquisition and support of the events’ international visitors was in the hands of Messe Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf / Germany; www.messe-duesseldorf.com), which also organised the official German trade fair presence of more than 50 companies. Other countries that chose to make joint presentations at ArabPlast include Austria, Italy and Portugal.

One of the most popular items on sale at the fair was plastics machinery. “Deals comprising machinery products at the show crossed AED 4.61 bn (EUR 927m),” said Khanna, adding that many local companies took advantage of the fact that they could buy the machinery on site and did not have to travel abroad to secure it.