The Oriental Pearl — at 1,535 feet, the tallest television tower in Asia — stands
beacon-like over the city of Shanghai.
S
hanghaiTex 2006, the 12th International Exhibition on Textile Industry, will bring
textile machinery and equipment manufacturers from around the world to present their latest
offerings to interested buyers at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre July 5-8, 2006. The
event is organized by Shanghai Textile Technology Service & Exhibition Centre, Shanghai
International Exhibition Co. Ltd. and Hong Kong-based Adsale Exhibition Services. Sponsors include
the Shanghai Textile Holding (Group) Corp., China Council for the Promotion of International Trade
Shanghai Sub-Council and China Chamber of International Commerce Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.
After posting record numbers at the 2005 edition of ShanghaiTex — when more than 1,400
exhibitors in seven permanent and two temporary halls comprising more than 125,000 square meters
(m2) of floor space showed their wares to more than 120,000 potential customers — the show’s
organizers decided last September to change the show’s frequency from biennial to annual beginning
with a 2006 show to better serve the growing numbers of Chinese and Asian textile manufacturers,
especially in the eastern Chinese provinces surrounding Shanghai. Several more limited exhibitions
that previously alternated with ShanghaiTex in the biennial cycle will be folded into ShanghaiTex
2006. These smaller shows include the Shanghai International Clothing Machinery Exhibition,
Knitting China and Shanghai (China) International Textile Machinery Accessories & Parts
Exhibition.
Because of the short lead time for this year’s event, the available exhibit space at the
expo center is much more limited, and ShanghaiTex 2006 will be considerably more compact than last
year’s show, with more than 500 exhibitors expected to fill 50,000 m2 in four halls, 50,000
visitors anticipated and a focus on the most advanced textile technologies — especially for
knitting, bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing technologies offered by foreign exhibitors.
However, organizers say the 2007 edition of the exhibition, scheduled during June of next year,
will resume the “mega” status of ShanghaiTex 2005, with 120,000 m2 of exhibit space expected to be
filled.
Although ShanghaiTex 2006 will place particular emphasis on the textile segments mentioned
above, the exhibition still will offer a full range of textile machinery, accessories and ancillary
products including: bleaching, dyeing, printing, finishing and making-up machinery;
fiber-manufacturing machinery; knitting and hosiery machinery; apparel machinery and accessories;
mill management instruments; nonwovens and tufting machinery; textile and apparel computer-aided
design and manufacturing, and computer-integrated manufacturing software and information
technology; textile and apparel machinery spare parts and accessories; spinning machinery; testing
and measuring equipment; textile chemicals; weaving machinery; and yarn twisters, winders and
accessories. As of
Textile World Asia
’s press time, Adsale reports exhibit space is nearly sold out for ShanghaiTex 2006, with
major companies from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the United States, Singapore, China, Hong
Kong, Taiwan and other countries participating.
The Shanghai New International Expo Center will accomodate the more than 500 exhibitors
that will show their products to an anticipated 50,000 visitors at ShanghaiTex 2006.
textile manufacturing bases in the country. For example, they report, Zhejiang province, just south
of Shanghai, accounted for 19.9 billion meters, or nearly 55 percent, of the 36.2 billion meters of
printed fabrics produced in China last year. In addition, textile machinery exports from the
eastern provinces accounted for 96 percent of China’s total textile machinery exports, valued at
US$871 million and representing a 30.3-percent increase over the previous year. Leading the country
in that category was Jiangsu Province, just north of Shanghai, while Zhejiang ranked among the top
five provinces in the country.
China’s eastern provinces, except Shanghai, accounted for 74 percent of the attendees at
ShanghaiTex 2005, while 21 percent came from other provinces and cities in China and 7 percent were
from outside China, the organizers reported. In all, visitors came from 61 countries and regions,
and from 29 provinces and cities in China.
Show organizers are offering on-line preregistration to ShanghaiTex visitors. Interested
persons may receive a free show catalogue and register by logging on to
www.2456.com/shanghaitex.
May/June 2006