InterPlas Thailand 2016: Powerful technologies for world-class products

Optimism dominates the 2016 InterPlas Thailand edition with the start of the ASEAN Economic Community  integration expected to bring in new opportunities. Thailand is poised to reap the rewards given its advantages in both production and supply over other economies in the ASEAN group. Beyond that, plastics manufacturers from Thailand are expected to further penetrate the global market where demand is projected to accelerate, and where the greatest growth is anticipated in the developing Asian nations.

InterPlas Thailand 2016 presents over 350 leading brands from 20 countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, Italy, among others. Exhibitors  take advantage of the upcoming opportunities the regional integration brings and aim to expand their markets to over 17,000 quality buyers from automotive, electronics & electrical, packaging, consumer product, construction, and plastics industries. These quality buyers are expected to actively seek new machinery; materials & chemicals; measuring, control and test equipment; parts and components that will best fit their operations’ needs.

Currently, there are 5,000 plastics facilities in Thailand comprising of converters and fabricators, mold and machine manufacturers, compounders, and petrochemical producers, with 60% of total output coming from SMEs. The remaining 40%, large-sized companies with global-scale production systems and significant foreign investment handle the consistent demands from the domestic market, as well as from regional overseas markets.

To accommodate the emerging demands and growth of plastics industry for various applications, the 2016 edition of InterPlas Thailand features relevant activities such as the “Plastics Forum” and “Plastic Innovation Showcase” with more specific contents to enrich the experiences of target visitors. The “Plastics Forum” is one of the pre-show activities of InterPlas Thailand and featured the topic, “Adding Marketing Values with Packaging Innovations,” which aimed to disseminate information on packaging strategy to promote the success of product marketing and gain acceptance from local and international market. Besides offering new knowledge on packaging, the forum presented an opportunity to network with the top executives from plastic industry and its supply chain.

To address the importance of emerging plastics applications for automotive, packaging, medical device, bioplastics and rubber sectors, the daily themes for onsite seminars are assigned based on these four industries. Thus, visitors and delegates can better focus on extensive topics with rich contents dedicated to specific demands and further applications from all seminar tracks.

The 2015 edition of InterPlas Thailand saw active participations with 15,953 visitors. Manufacturers, agents and industrial specialists have bonded and expanded their networks.

Advantages and opportunities

Thailand’s plastics industry has sustained its growth momentum in recently years and with 5,000 plastics manufacturers and converters, the country has contributed to the world plastics market through its many products.  

Packaging accounts for nearly half of plastics consumption in Thailand, while the rest of production is absorbed by the electronics sector (15%), construction (14%) and automotive (8%). The country’s two fast-growing sectors - automobile and electronics, - rely on plastics production. The current trend of using environment-friendly materials has led to heightened demand for recycling equipment and use of bioplastics which the country has been promoting. Thailand has invested more than $60 million in bioplastics development in the past few years and the Thai government is keen on investing more in sustainable production to meet global manufacturing trend.   

More opportunities will be created in the area of plastics manufacturing given the optimism in the country’s economic performance. Thailand’s economy grew more expected in the first quarter of 2016 due to efforts of the government to spur spending to counter weak domestic demand and push exports. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.2% in the first three months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, according to the National Economic and Social Development Board.

The Thai government, led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, has implemented economic stimulus measures worth over 645 billion baht ($18 billion) since September 2015 to encourage domestic demand. The Bank of Thailand also retained its benchmark interest rate to help support the economy.