Chinaplas Returns to Shanghai, New Venue This April
Chinaplas will be back in Shanghai and the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Hongqiao this April, marking the event’s second staging at the new venue in the midst of economic uncertainty in China and globally.
The 34th edition of Chinaplas will be staged April 21-24 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in the Hongqiao sector of Shanghai. The annual show, which rotates between Guangzhou in southern China and Shanghai in the country’s center, was last in Shanghai in 2018, when it was staged at the new exhibition center—which opened in 2015—for the first time.
At that inaugural staging of the event in the new exhibition center, the show covered 340,000-m2 (3.6 million ft2) and had 3964 exhibitors, drawing 180,701 visitors from 40 different regions and countries. Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd., organizer of Chinaplas, is once again anticipating more than 3900 exhibitors at Chinaplas 2020, including more than 2500 from China. There will also be 11 country/region pavilions, representing Germany, Italy, the U.S., Japan and others, as well as 19 themed zones. Chinaplas 2019 (May 21-24; Guangzhou) set a new record for the show in that city, featuring 3,622 exhibitors and 163,314 visitors.
Machinery Exports to China Slow
In 2019, the global manufacturing economy, including China, faced a general slowdown fed in part by lingering trade questions and felt most acutely in the automotive sector. In a November 2019 report, Germany’s Mechanical Engineering Industry Assn. (VDMA), which includes makers of plastics and rubber equipment, said that machinery exports from Germany to China shrank by 0.7 percent to 14.1 billion euros over the first nine months of the year. China, which is the second most important single market for German machinery exporters, accounts for 10.5 percent of total machinery exports. At Chinaplas 2019, Germany’s pavilion covered 3784 m2 and featured 142 companies.
Prior to Chinaplas 2019, VDMA released a Salary Survey of German and Austrian plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers that have a presence in China, which found the staff size of their Chinese businesses had grown steadily over the last six years. The majority of respondents had a payroll of above 100 employees, up from 10-50 employees in 2013 and 2015.
Global Automotive Sector Hits the Brakes
Any growth came despite struggles in the automotive sector. After 28 straight years of expansion, the Chinese automotive sector contracted in 2018. The global auto industry also broke a 7-consecutive-year growth streak in 2019, registering global auto sales 95.6 million vehicles. The trend continued in 2019, with auto sales in China, including passenger and commercial vehicles, down 9.1% year over year for the first 11 months of the year, according to the China Assn. of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
In a release, Adsale pointed to Asia’s increasing trade growth among its member nations as a means to avert a global slowdown or trade quarrels with U.S. Saying that Asia’s “self-reliance continues to strengthen”, the Chinaplas organizer pointed out that trade within Asia exceeds the all of the continent’s trade with other regions, including North America and the Eurozone.
Chinaplas returns to Shanghai this April.
