CHINACOAT 2009 Surpasses Exhibitors’ Expectations

By Kerry Pianoforte
Editor

For exhibitors, CHINACOAT 2009 presented an excellent opportunity to showcase the ways their companies can help the Chinese coatings industry continue to prosper. The vibrant nature of CHINACOAT is a clear indication of the health of the Chinese coatings industry. The exhibition’s ability to bring together so many coatings industry leaders is one of the keys to its success every year, and CHINACOAT 2009 was no different.

“At CHINACOAT you see all the important technical and purchasing people in one place,” said Chuck Hoover Jr. of Hoover Corp. “There is definitely major interest in technology transfer in China. This is ground zero for global trade. Ideas and technology come to China and are transferred throughout the world.”

“There was good quality traffic on the show floor throughout the entire three days of the exhibition,” said Joon Choo, vice president, Shamrock Technologies. “This may have to do with the fact that as travel budgets are being slashed, only key people are attending these types of shows. I am extremely pleased with how the show went in terms of both quality of attendees and traffic. I was also pleased with the organization and the size and layout of our booth. There was plenty of room to sit down and talk with people one on one. I don’t know what next year’s CHINACOAT will be like in terms of attendance but for Shamrock, we will definitely be there.”

Perstorp’s Per-Erik Velin, vice president specialty polyols, agreed that CHINACOAT 2009 was very busy. “Our booth was extremely active with many customers. If this trend continues, CHINACOAT will be even busier next year.

“Of course this has been a tough year,” said Velin, regarding the recession’s impact on business. “But next year we expect improvements. In quarters three and four we have seen a rebound, although we don’t expect to come back to pre-recession levels. Over the last couple of months we have gained stable ground.”

On returning to CHINACOAT 2009, Holly Seese, global marketing communication manager, Celanese, said, “We had great expectations being back in Shanghai this year and the exhibition exceeded them. We held many meetings and my team and I were very excited during the entire show. CHINACOAT has truly turned into a global show.”

“CHINACOAT 2009 was as well attended as it has ever been,” said Alan Kalmikoff, president at Keim-Additec Surface USA. “I am a bit surprised attendance was so good with the economy being the way it is. Our parent company, which is Keim-Additec GmbH, is co-exhibiting with our distributor here in China.”

For Birgit Genn, head of global marketing and business development, Heubach Group, CHINACOAT 2009 was a special show. “We introduced our Heubach Hangzhou location, which is two hours west of Shanghai,” said Genn. “From a product perspective, we are focusing on environmentally friendly products, such as lead-chromate replacements and IR pigments to reduce heat. This was a hot topic during the show. Hopefully next year’s CHINACOAT 2010 will be attended like this year’s exhibition.”

“We did good business and also received a lot of questions from people not just regarding prices but also higher level technical questions,” said Jiro Suezawa, director, specialty chemicals division, general manager, performance materials, Kyowa Hakko Chemical. “The show brought together many foreigners from outside of China. We had visitors from Sri Lanka and Greece, to name a few places. The show has particularly attracted people from all over Asia and India, which is a good thing.”

In the end Suezawa said, “We look forward to CHINACOAT 2010. We have been attending since 2002 and we learn a lot of valuable information from CHINACOAT.”