Chinaplas Looks Within & Without China to Further Growth

Chinaplas 2019 (May 21-24; China Import & Export Fair Complex; Guangzhou) organizer Adsale Exhbition Services Ltd. has expanded outreach to plastics-relevant associations in Southeast Asia as well as central and western China, as it prepares for the 33^rd edition of its annual show.

In the run up to Chinaplas 2019, Adsale officials report visits and outreach with plastics-touching trade associations in Southeast Asia, including SME Corp. Malaysia, Thai Housewares Trade Assn., Thai Tool and Die Industry Assn., Thai Auto-Parts Manufacturers Assn. and the Electric Vehicle Assn. of Thailand.

In addition, the China Central and Western Regions Plastics Industry Alliances have joined with Chinaplas, helping foster “communication and interaction among stakeholders in the plastics industry in the central and western regions,” according to Adsale. China’s eastern coast has long been the focus of the country’s booming economic expansion, but inland regions are increasingly exhibiting the highest levels of business activity.

Adsale reports that in 2017, the export value of laptops of Chongqing in Southwest China totaled $18.5 billion, making the city the world’s biggest cluster for laptops, with Hewlett-Packard recently establishing a manufacturing plant there. In automotive, the central Chinese city of Wuhan has become a hub, manufacturing 1.89 million passenger vehicles in 2017, while Henan province produced more than 250 million smartphones the same year, making it the largest production base for that product, according to Adsale. The year-on-year growth rate of plastics production in the 12 provinces and regions in the west was 8.44%.

To tap into the region’s growth and better connect it to Chinaplas, Adsale reports that it has put in additional promotional efforts, attended various events in the region, and also visited important enterprises.

U.S. and China Plastics Tradeflows Continue

Despite the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China, both countrys’ plastics sectors remain intertwined, according to the PLASTICS Industry Association’s (PLASTICS) recent Size & Impact report. In preliminary figures for 2018 tallying the first nine months of the year, plastics exports to china were actually slightly higher than 2017 figures, trailing only Mexico and Canada, while imports had actually increased more than 10%, according to PLASTICS.