SinoCorrugated’s Alex Wang: “The show will be a global trading platform for domestic as well as international suppliers and buyers”

PrintWeek India (PWI): Please, tell our readers about SinoCorrugated South trade show. Who are the exhibitors, from which countries? Which areas of printing industry do they represent? How many exhibitors and visitors do you expect on this year show?

Alex Wang (AW): SinoCorrugated South 2018 can be regarded as one of the leading trade shows within the Asia Pacific printing and packaging industry sector. This year, the show will cover a total area of nearly 80,000sq/mt. It is expected to gather over 700 equipment and consumable exhibitors and over 200 suppliers of packaging container as well as packaging material and design, displaying 1,400 types of equipment related to corrugating, folding carton, flexography and paper packaging as well as 1,000 relevant consumables. A total of 15 exhibitors are coming from Europe. We are expecting more than 35.000 professional domestic and international visitors this year. At around 8,000 of them will come from overseas countries. We are expecting more than 35,000 professional domestic and international visitors this year.

Alex Wang of Reed Exhibitions

PWI: What are the advantages of taking part in SinoCorrugated for overseas companies and visitors?

AW: As for the advantages of taking part in SinoCorrugated South, you know, previously influential exhibitions within the industry were mostly held in Europe and America. Nowadays, in order to seize the rapidly growing market of China, more and more industry exhibitions have expanded to China. Since being held in 2001 for the first time, SinoCorrugated has been always dedicated to being an international brand in order to provide a one-stop experience to business professionals from the corrugated industry. We have invested a lot into the global promotion of the exhibition as well as in the set-up of a global marketing network. We have to say SinoCorrugated is not only the one-way platform for China's sellers to sell to international buyers but also has become a trading platform for global suppliers and buyers as one of the largest corrugated exhibitions around the world. Each year the exhibition gathers corrugated exhibitors and industry experts to explore the latest industry-related trends and technologies. Thus, it’s quite worthwhile for overseas exhibitors and visitors to join the show.

PWI: What about the shows which will take place simultaneously with SinoCorrugated? Could we say that in Guangdong visitors will be able to see almost a whole spectrum of packaging sector in China or even South-East Asia? What side events, like conferences, workshops, etc will be held during the fairs?

AW: This year, SinoCorrugated South 2018 will be concurrently held together with SinoFoldingCarton 2018, SinoFlexoGraphy South 2018, China Packaging Container Expo 2018 and China Label Industry Expo 2018. The one-stop platform will cover the whole industry chain of packaging and printing. The five-in-one mega expo will host over 30 onsite activities such as Corrugated World Forum, India Day, Iran Day, Trade Agents welcome dinner, Flexographic Printing Development Summit, Forum of Development and Application of Digital Packaging Technology, Packaging Creative Industry Development Forum and many more activities from which visitors can learn more about latest technologies, innovative industry solutions as well as emerging markets and current developing trends. It will be a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with industry peers and gain valuable business contacts.

PWI: Do you expect some launches of new technologies, machines or devices during the trade show? What, in your opinion, can attract visitors’ attention? Which solutions will be shown for the first time?

AW: Absolutely. Many exhibitors will showcase its machines and devices onsite of SinoCorrugated South 2018, which will also provide a perfect platform for other exhibitors to launch new technologies and solutions. Keeping audiences interested and sustainably is always one of our biggest concerns. This year, an exciting new feature includes the launch of 3 Dream Factories highlighting the fields of digital printing, boutique boxes and tubes and modern flexography. The ‘Digital Printing Dream Works’ factory will provide a three-dimensional demonstration of the actual and complete production process of digital printing technologies in European, American and Japanese intelligent digital printing production workshops. It’s a real-time simulation under production workshop conditions - specifically within the field of folding carton and corrugated carton production lines, the workshop will feature topics such as equipment configuration and their placements, order type, order structure, equipment speed, performance, stability, personnel allocation, printing quality and other information inputs.

PWI: What can you tell about packaging market in China? Is it still growing fast? Which printing technologies are leading and which ones are fast developing? Please explain why?

AW: According to the 2017 China corrugated industry report which was officially released by the China Packaging Federation, the number of medium and large-scale packaging enterprises (with an annual revenue over 20 million RMB) reached 7582 in 2016, generating a total revenue of more than 1.17 trillion RMB. This stands for a year-on-year growth of 4.98%, a 0.9% higher compared to 2015. It perfectly shows the growth momentum of the packaging market in China. As for the leading printing technologies, we have to say gravure offset printing and flexography printing lead the mainstream of the packaging industry. With a growing environmental concern, flexography printing has become increasingly common during the past decades. Meanwhile, digital printing has gained more and more attention and recognition in recent years. In March of this year, the Chinese government announced a new strategic program "Made in China 2025," aimed specifically at promoting Industry 4.0 technologies. Overall speaking, China is moving towards advanced technological fields, from a centralised control system to intelligent, decentralised and self-adaptive control. Therefore, digital printing is expected to develop ever more rapidly in the future.

PWI: How has SinoCorrugated grown from its humble beginnings way back in 2001?

AW: Reed Exhibitions has experience in holding exhibitions and has developed operation mode through which the resources of the global printing and packaging industry can be fully used in SinoCorrugated. First, we have the unique database of Reed Exhibitions. As we know, the audience registration of exhibition is based on professional buyer database. Reed Exhibitions has been deeply devoted to the carton industry for 20 years and owns a big and accurate global carton industry database of more than 200,000, including over 100,000 domestic data and more than 100,000 overseas data.

Secondly, we have constant support from global partners. At present, SinoCorrugated has kept close cooperation with over 100 media and over 100 associations around the world, established the global strategic cooperative partnership with more than 500 suppliers worldwide and cooperated with global ten call centers, ISG system in 46 countries and 30 travel agencies in 13 countries throughout the year to ensure the quantity and quality of overseas exhibitors and audiences. Without them, we cannot be where we are today.

Thirdly, experience in holding exhibitions or we say, in exhibition operation, is another key factor. We have successfully held the exhibitions for 17 years. More than 50% of our team members are from the corrugated packaging industry, 35% of members have served the corrugated exhibition for at least 10 years. We are capable to adjust our operation according to the market demands as well as the requirements from different participants, so as to ensure that our exhibitors and audiences obtain the first-class service in each link.