Early Reports From Chinaplas 2017
Watch this space for more news from the big show, which, with a venue change next year, could be the biggest show.
There will be more reports to come this week from the four-day event in Guangzhou, but here are some early snippets. This year’s edition was 4% larger than the last Guangzhou show in 2015, with 250,000-m2 of exhibit space. The show expected to attract 140,000 visitors over its four days (it eclipsed 40,000 on day one and 56,000 on day two), with 30% of those coming from overseas. The show boasted 3465 exhibitors.
In 2018 from April 24-27, Chinaplas will return to Shanghai but instead of being at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center in Pudong, it will be at the National Exhibition and Convention Center. That venue’s larger space and Adsale’s waiting list to exhibit give next year's show a chance to be the world’s biggest in terms of gross exhibit space.
Eastman Chemical used Chinaplas to springboard its newest material, a cellulose-based bioplastic that it says offers processing ease and performance perks (including strong chemical resistance) that have largely alluded biomaterials. Treva is a cellulose-based material which is half sourced from sustainably managed forests, and it debuted in Guangzhou.
Last year, Engel marked 30 years in China and on the 10th anniversary of making machines there, which it celebrated in 2017, it gave details on a new capacity expansion. The addition of a 10-axis machining center will greatly boost capacity and the capability to crank out big platens. The 1000th duo it delivered from Shanghai last October came in with 4000 tons of clamping pressure.
