K 2013 exceeds high expectations

It was with great expectations that companies from the plastics and rubber industries came to Düsseldorf, to the world’s most important trade fair in their sector, K 2013. The upturn experienced in the sector for months now, along with the confidence of companies in showing their pioneering product innovations for all sections of the value-added chain, raised justified hopes of a good fair and brisk post-fair business. And these expectations were actually even exceeded over the eight days of the trade fair. Exhibitors reported unanimously on numerous concrete project enquiries, intense negotiations with trade visitors from throughout the world and a remarkable number of business deals, some of which were concluded instantaneously and quite a number of which were worth millions.

As Chairman of the Exhibitors’Advisory Board for K 2013, Mr. Ulrich Reifenh?user was extremely pleased with the results. “We had not expected visitors’ willingness to invest to be this high! The many innovative products and applications premiered in Düsseldorf met with great interest from trade visitors. And the innovations were not just admired as many, very concrete negotiations were held and contracts were signed. Many customers are extending their capacities and are investing in new technologies to sharpen their global competitive edge. We very confidently anticipate strong post-fair business and expect continuing growth in our sector.”

This view was echoed throughout all areas of the fair and shared by the over 3,200 exhibiting raw material producers, processors and machinery producers to an equal extent. Exhibitors particularly highlighted the now even wider international spread of visitors and their great specialist expertise plus the fact that a disproportionately high number of top managers had made the journey to Düsseldorf.

Some 218,000 trade visitors to K 2013 came from well over 120 countries. According to Mr. Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf: “Once again it becomes very clear that K is and remains the most important event in the rubber and plastics industry! This is where new technologies are premiered alongside fully matured further developments and this is also where orders are placed for these innovations. Foreign visitors to K 2013, in particular, showed an extremely high willingness to invest and one in two visitors came to Düsseldorf with specific purchasing intentions in mind. Even if the size of delegations from the individual purchasing companies dropped slightly, no firm producing or using plastic goods missed this chance to find out about the innovations of today and the trends of the future at K 2013.” The previous event in 2010 saw 222,486 visitors and 3,094 exhibitors taking part.

Germany’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joschka Fischer, was on hand to provide the opening remarks at the kick-off of the special exhibition, “Plastics move the world“, sponsored by PlasticsEurope Deutschland. The focus of his speech was plastics and sustainability.

More diverse foreign visitors

Results from the visitor survey also underpin the view held by exhibitors that the international flair of visitors has risen once again: 58%, i.e. 126,000 trade visitors, came from abroad. Just under half of all foreign visitors came from overseas – travelling to Düsseldorf from as far away as Angola, Burkina Faso, the Falkland Islands, the Yemen, Malawi, Nepal, New Caledonia, Oman, Peru and Turkmenistan. As expected, the proportion of tradBlack Friday 19