K Show flexes its innovative muscles

230,000 investment-oriented visitors from all over the world – with particularly high numbers from Asia – concluded numerous deals and took part in countless seminars and discussions on trends and business. The K Show delivered another outstanding performance, as rubber and plastics processors continue to show promise and growth.

The international plastics and rubber industry presents itself in top shape. It benefits from a globally growing end-user market with high quality demands and stands for impressive innovative power across the entire value chain. The extraordinarily good economic state of this sector and the positive outlook for the future characterised the world’s biggest trade fair for the industry and made for an excellent mood among the 3,285 exhibitors of K 2016 in Düsseldorf. Companies reported a host of new leads, many of which already resulted in closed deals over the eight days of the trade fair. Ulrich Reifenhäuser, chairman of the K 2016 advisory board, put it in a nutshell: "I have never seen such a vast number of decisive customers willing to buy at a trade fair before. The number and magnitude of deals, some of which were concluded here spontaneously, as well as the many concrete enquiries about new projects far exceeded our expectations. It was clear from day one that customers wanted to not only find out about new technologies but also purchase them. There is strong investment in all our customer industries and in all regions of the world.”

This assessment held true for all ranges on offer at the trade fair. Exhibitors unanimously confirmed that trade visitors were extremely serious about their business negotiations and showed a pronounced willingness to invest. Furthermore, they emphasised the again higher percentage of international visitors and their very high degree of professional expertise, as well as the fact that a disproportionately high number of top managers and company owners had come to Düsseldorf.

230,000 trade visitors from over 160 countries were welcomed to the exhibition halls over the eight days of K 2016. Delighted at the results, president and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf  Werner Matthias Dornscheidt says: “Just the sheer number of experts visiting K 2016 impressively confirms the appeal and importance of the trade fair – since this number is once again clearly higher than at the previous event in 2013. However, what is more important: the breakdown of trade visitors was of an exceedingly high standard. We can register a constantly good level of demand from Germany and a disproportionately high level of interest from abroad, especially from overseas. It is known the world over that K in Düsseldorf is the innovation platform for the entire sector. A visit here is simply indispensable for anyone wanting to stay ahead of the competition.”

The previous event in 2013 was attended by 218,000 visitors and 3,220 exhibitors.

 Foreign investment

The results from the visitor surveys underpin the exhibitors’ view that the proportion of international guests has risen once again: some 70% came from abroad. More than 40% of all foreign visitors hailed from overseas – even visitors from places as far away as Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, the Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Oman, Madagascar, Mauritius, Surinam and Togo travelled to the Rhine. As expected, the experts from Asia accounted for the largest group among foreign guests, growing yet again: nearly 30,000 experts came from South, East and Central Asia. Guests from India again constituted the biggest group here but the number of visitors from China, South Korea and Iran also rose significantly.

Almost on a par was the proportion of visitors from the US and Canada, accounting for some 6% of all foreign visitors.

With regard to guests from neighbouring European countries, Italy dominated, with over 10,000 visitors, followed by the Netherlands (9,500), France (6,700), Belgium (6,300), Spain and Poland (5,000 each). There was perceptibly stronger interest taken by Turkey, Hungary and Greece. 

Across all country borders, the percentage of executives among trade visitors was extraordinarily high. Some two thirds were top managers or in middle management. Almost 60% had the final word on – or were decisively involved in – their companies’ investment decisions. K plays an outstanding role in deciding which investment will be made: almost half the visitors stated that they waited for the trade fair before realising any purchasing projects.

Exhibitors in all exhibition segments had prepared for K 2016 for months in order to face international competition with convincing innovations. And they met with enormous approval: trade visitors were thrilled with the wealth of new technical developments presented to them by raw materials producers, machine manufacturers and producers of semi-finished and technical parts. Over 70% of visitors confirmed having received information on news and trends. By their own accounts, numerous visitors wish to immediately convert these new insights into investment: 60% of industry decision-makers said they had visited the trade fair with concrete intentions to buy while 58% had already found new suppliers. With these new purchases, visitors first and foremost pursued three objectives for their enterprises: to expand their product portfolio, extend production capacity and increase efficiency. The results of the visitor survey also confirm the positive business situation in the downstream sectors of the plastics and rubber industries: 60% of the visitors polled rate the current situation as “very good” and “good” while the same percentage even expect the situation to improve over the next 12 months.

Looking ahead

Energy, material and resource efficiency were the dominating themes at K 2016. Also meeting with avid interest were new materials, innovative recycling concepts, new application areas for organic plastics and additive manufacturing. Smart, quick and flexible lines and services were in high demand among customers; industry 4.0 dominated not only lectures and discussions but was also demonstrated hands-on at many stands. Commenting on this, Ulrich Reifenhäuser said: “The possibilities that the internet of things (IoT) brings stimulates strong, serious interest – especially among younger, IT-savvy customers from throughout the world. Industry 4.0 is a theme of the future that will keep us busy for years to come.” Machine and plant manufacturing, which occupied the biggest exhibition area at K 2016 with over 1,900 exhibitors, was also the centre of attraction for visitors; a good two thirds of all experts polled ranked this segment first. 46% said they were predominantly interested in raw and auxiliary materials, while for 25%, semi-finished products and technical parts made of plastic and rubber were the main reason for coming (multiple choices possible). Albeit the smaller sector of the two, the rubber industry made a highly visible appearance at K 2016 and underscored its importance in the areas of mobility, leisure, household and energy.

Visitors came from all important user industries – from the construction sector and automotive to packaging and electrical, as well as medical device technology and, not to forget, agriculture. They all again gave top scores to the ranges on display in the 19 exhibition halls: 97% ensured that they had reached their goals 100% while 96% said they were impressed with the line-up at K 2016.

Also going down well with the experts from around the world was the line-up of accompanying events at K 2016, especially the Special Show “Plastics shape the future” and the Science Campus. The Special Show, a central forum for swapping information, thoughts and opinions in hall 6, complemented the exhibits at K for the ninth time now. This year saw individual themed days illustrate the impact plastics have on shaping modern living environments. The agenda featured expert discussions and entertaining presentations and sports activities, as well as exciting experiments. At the Science Campus, exhibitors and visitors to K 2016 obtained a focused overview of scientific activities and results in the plastics and rubber sectors, and were given the opportunity to make contact with numerous universities, institutes and sponsoring organisations.

The next K in Düsseldorf will take place from 16 to 23 October 2019.

Plastics manufacturers' positive verdict

Plastics manufacturers are very content with the results of K 2016. The trade fair took off to a strong start, with the producers’ stands very well attended even on the first day of the trade fair and on Thursday. Friday also saw pleasantly high attendance and, after the traditionally somewhat quieter weekend, the second week of K continued with many high-quality conversations on Monday. Nearly all exhibitors agreed they saw throngs of visitors at their stands already briefly after the trade fair had opened and that most of them came very well prepared. They also agreed on the high level of expertise and decision-making powers, while English was the dominating language spoken at many stands. “A successful K with many interesting conversations with national and international customers and business associates lies behind us,” explained Dr Josef Ertl, chairman of PlasticsEurope Deutschland, who went on to say: “We have seen a very innovative and forward-looking K, which continues to be the ideal platform for presenting new technologies, workflows and materials from our industry – and is therefore a must-go event for plastics manufacturers.” The topics producing the most intense discussion at producers’ stands were lightweight construction, innovation, competitiveness and industry 4.0, smart factory, and additive manufacturing. Resource efficiency with plastics and environmental friendliness were also among the issues frequently addressed.

Also very well attended was the Special Show, a project initiated by the German plastics industry under the auspices of PlasticsEurope Deutschland and Messe Düsseldorf. This presentation already accompanied the ranges exhibited at K for the ninth time. Under the heading “Plastics shape the future”, functionality, aesthetics and the sustainability of plastics were centre stage here; the innovative stand design reflected the theme and aroused visitors’ curiosity. Experts from science, industry and political spheres provided information on these themes, and discussed economic, social and ecological challenges and approaches over seven themed days – thereby addressing the sector’s core issues and tomorrow’s trends. Films and slide shows pictured the challenges as well as the responses the plastics industry has already developed or is currently working on.

Another highlight of the Special Show was the robotics teams of the CJD college in Königswinter that gave proof of their skills and that of their robots in the disciplines “Rescue” and “Soccer”. The youngest ‘exhibitors’ at the K trade fair carried visitors away with their enthusiasm, all the more so as the issue of young talent and education is gaining more ground among plastics manufacturers. Accordingly, a Youth Day was again organised that attracted plenty of attention and gave young multipliers the unique opportunity to meet decision-makers from the industry. The venture of offering specifically themed days for the first time paid off for the Special Show. And valuable aspects such as marine litter were not spared either. At the same time, the Special Show organisers set accents with such topics as resource efficiency – in particular, with a lecture by Professor Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker – and other exciting plastics subjects such as lightweight construction, new materials, plastics industry 4.0 and designing with plastics.