The North American lead fair for the plastics industry "NPE 2009" (to be held from 22-26 June 2009; www.npe.org) is evidently also suffering heavily from the global economic crisis. William R. Carteaux, president of the organising Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI, Washington, DC / USA; www.plasticsindustry.org), admitted that some big exhibitors have decided not to come to Chicago this year. To counter the trend and make attendance at the exhibition more attractive, the SPI has put together a "stimulus package" that will make the stands and entrance tickets cheaper for exhibitors.

The cancellation rate in February was around 3%, said Carteaux, which was more or less normal. Although at present 130 more exhibitors had registered than in 2006, the average size of the stands was very much smaller than it was three years ago.

Machinery manufacturers in particular are having problems with deciding to attend the event because they need large stands as well as a wide range of technical services for setting up and operating the machines. In the US, however, such services are considerably more expensive than at comparable exhibitions in Asia and Europe, said a spokesman from the injection moulding machine manufacturer Netstal-Maschinen (Näfels / Switzerland; www.netstal.com). "We had originally planned to attend but then decided against it because of the economic crisis and the costs involved," he told PIE. The company will nevertheless be present in Milan and Guangzhou. Like Netstal, the large US supplier of peripherals, ACS Group (Schaumburg, Illinois / USA; www.acscorporate.com), and the two injection moulding machine manufacturers Japan Steel Works (JSW, Tokyo / Japan; www.jsw.co.jp) and Nissei Plastic Industrial Co Ltd (Nagano / Japan; www.nisseijushi.co.jp) have pulled out. KraussMaffei Technologies (KM, Munich / Germany; www.kraussmaffei.com) is also currently discussing whether to attend what it calls "this extremely expensive exhibition."