Huge increase Labelexpo Asia visitors reflects booming market

The dramatic growth of the Chinese label industry was reflected in the size of this year's Labelexpo Asia, which took place at the Shanghai New International Expo Center recently. The show welcomed a phenomenal 14,004 visitors from China and abroad (compared to 9112 in 2005 – an increase of 54 percent). Catering solely for trade professionals, this year's show demonstrated a high quality of visitors, confirming Labelexpo Asia's status as the leading label event in Asia.

Visitors came from 71 countries, with almost 15 percent of people from outside China. In particular large delegations attended from Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and India.

The net floor space grew by 16 percent, with 210 leading Chinese and international suppliers exhibiting (compared to 150 in 2005). These included Avery Dennison, Gallus, HP, Mark Andy, Gidue, Nilpeter, Omet, UPM Raflatac, Lintec, Taiyo, Labelmen, Beiren-Fuji, Qingzhou Ekofa and Xeikon.

The success of the show was also reflected in the exhibitors' re-booking, with 50 percent of the floor space already sold for the show in 2009.

Labelexpo Asia 2007 demonstrated how the Chinese and Asian label industry has radically changed since the last show in 2005, showing maturity and gradually establishing its own niche. The Chinese label market is currently booming with a growth rate of over 18 percent per annum.

China continues to establish itself as the world's new major global economic power. Having opened its market for foreign investment and unleashed its infrastructure development, the Chinese label market is attracting all major label suppliers, manufacturers and converters, who recognize the vast business potential of the market.

Commenting on the success of the show, Wu Wenxiang, honorary board director of PTAC, said, ‘This year's Labelexpo Asia has outweighed the former two editions, in terms of the number of visitors and exhibitors and the quality of exhibits. As a supporting association to the show, the Printing Technology Association of China aimed to make Labelexpo Asia a highly professional event for both international and national trade professionals. We also aimed to boost the Chinese and Asian label industry helping it grow further and building trade links between China and the rest of the world.’

Lu Chang'a, president of China Printing Machinery and Materials branch of PPEIA, commented, ‘I visited Labelexpo Europe before, which made a great impression on me, but this year's Labelexpo Asia in Shanghai exceeded all my expectations. This show is a very focused event catering for trade professionals in the label and narrow web printing industry; it is, in fact, the best show I have ever seen.’

Yin Deming, president of Shanghai Printing Association, said, ‘We are very pleased to see that Labelexpo Asia maintains such a high number of international exhibitors and visitors. Having visited the show this year, we realized how great the potential of the Asian label market is, and we are certain that Labelexpo Asia 2009 will be another great success.’

Roger Pellow, Labelexpo Managing Director, said, ‘This third edition of Labelexpo Asia has once again shown the enormous scale of opportunities that exist for the labeling industry in the Chinese market. The three very busy days of the show have been highly effective for both exhibitors and visitors, who benefited from doing business, sharing knowledge and, most importantly, networking and setting up new partnerships and contracts.

‘Having had some fantastic feedback on the quality of the show from visitors we decided to extend Labelexpo Asia 2009 to four days to give extra time to exhibitors to do business. We aspire to build on the success of Labelexpo Asia 2007 to encourage a further growth of the labeling industry in the region.’