‘China-only Chinaplas' opens as first major industry show in the pandemic

SHENZHEN, China—On April 13, more than 40,000 visitors walked into a Chinaplas like no other.

Visitors and exhibitors at the first major industry trade fair held in the pandemic were required to submit to multiple temperature checks; 1-meter social distancing in registration lines; and contact tracing measures like mandatory health code checks, real name registration and even facial recognition scanning to gain access to every hall.

Nonmainland Chinese visitors, including show organizers with Hong Kong-based Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd., had to go through a two-week hotel quarantine in order to attend the show, which runs April 13-16 in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

And, of course, everyone was supposed to wear a face mask at all times.

It all contributed to a feeling of a whole new world for the world's first big industry show of the pandemic.

Typically, Chinaplas attracts 20 percent overseas visitors, but travel restrictions this year made it impossible for most regular visitors from abroad to attend.

"We're calling it a 'China-only Chinaplas' this year," laughed Helen Li, project leader of the show team for Singapore-based polyolefin supplier Borouge Pte. Ltd.

That moniker turned out to be an apt one, as Adsale reported that 99 percent of the 44,236 first-day visitors were from mainland China, with only 577 from overseas.

Still, Adsale tried to put a positive twist on the numbers, reporting a 30 percent increase in mainland Chinese visitors compared with the last edition, in 2019 in Guangzhou. The 2020 edition in Shanghai was postponed and then ultimately canceled in the worst of the pandemic.

Adsale executives said they were betting that the chance for suppliers and clients to meet face to face would ensure good attendance.

"There's no show in other parts of the world, only in China," said Adsale General Manager Ada Leung, "and also for the industry people, they do not have the chance to go to see a world-class event since last year."

Hand sanitizer, constant cleaning

She said the company was projecting 150,000 visitors over the four-day event, compared with 160,000 attendees in 2019.

In normal times, Chinaplas is one of the world's largest plastics trade shows. It's taking place even as major shows elsewhere, like NPE2021 in Florida, have been forced to cancel.

Health and safety were the top priorities, said Leung, who declined to share the investment the company made in health and safety features for this year's Chinaplas.

"This is something we must do," she said. "I think this is most important; it's not a matter of money."

Leung said that Adsale adhered to Chinese government regulations to put on the show safely as well as provided guidance to the 3,500 exhibiting companies. China has resumed holding some large-scale events, using aggressive lockdowns and other measures to control outbreaks.

Hand sanitizer was plainly visible at exhibitor booths in the 350,000-sq.-meter exhibition space, but many safety measures were not as obvious, including twice-daily disinfection of exhibition booths and public areas like escalator handrails.

Borouge's Li said that her team consulted with Adsale before the show to acquaint themselves with the organizer's emergency plan and guidelines.

"Our health and safety managers are on site every day," she said. "We asked our employees to wear masks, and we've given them guidelines on keeping social distance, recording twice-daily temperature and also reporting their track record in the hall, so if something happened we know to take precautions if they went somewhere."

She added that Borouge's crisis management team produced an emergency response plan and presented it to hospitality workers ahead of the show.

There were even more detailed adjustments to regular Chinaplas hospitality features.

"In the past, the food was like finger food. But this time we used individually packed candies and snacks and bottled water to make it more hygienic," Li said.

Those safety measures did nothing to dampen the collegial atmosphere of the show, which was the first time for many clients and suppliers to meet in over a year. But the impact of lower visitor numbers was felt in some of the halls.

Li HuaDa, general manager of Taizhou Datang Mould Ltd., sat in a nearly empty booth with his sales manager and wife.

"This year it doesn't feel like an international event," he bemoaned. "There used to be so many foreign visitors. I hope tomorrow there will be more people."

Li, whose company specializes in making molds for garbage sorting bins for the domestic market and patio furniture for the international market, said it was still important for him to exhibit at Chinaplas.

"If you don't participate, it's not good for future sales," he said.

The absence of overseas visitors was more noticeable in some halls than in others.

While the familiar bustling feel of a typical Chinaplas was still felt somewhat in the machinery halls, other halls felt more like the last day of the fair when many people have already gone home and only the stragglers remain.

Coming down the escalator, Zhong Xuguang of injection machine maker Haitian International Holdings Ltd., saw the difference.

"There's obviously fewer visitors here. Before, on Day One and Day Two, the halls would be fully packed," he noted.

One other thing noted in the international halls was the lack of uniform observance of face mask regulations.

Yu Lan, human resources manager for the China operation for American extrusion equipment supplier Davis-Standard L.L.C., said the lower numbers should not entirely be attributed to travel restrictions.

The show's new location, at the brand-new Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center, is quite far from the city center and without public transportation infrastructure like the Guangzhou or Shanghai sites, which she said could have been a factor. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

"This year the numbers are obviously lower, but everyone who is here has real demand," she said. The mostly domestic visitors may have stayed away from the international hall because of perceptions of price differences, she suggested.

"Perhaps they were thinking they'd just look to domestic competitors for lower prices," she said.

She said this year, instead of the international team that would normally staff the Davis-Standard booth, its domestically based sales team was out in full force, with meetings with visiting clients taking place over WeChat with the international leadership team.

The trend for online meetings and presentations was no doubt a feature of many visitors and exhibitors' Chinaplas experiences this year, although with varied success.

Technical difficulties

Chinaplas Media Day April 12 got off to a bit of a rocky start when one executive outside China was unable to present remotely because of technical difficulties.

And this Shanghai-based reporter had to cut short an online interview with an overseas executive for one exhibitor because of unstable internet at the site—and the executive's excitable dog.

Still, there were some unexpected benefits of having to change the Chinaplas format during a pandemic, Adsale's Leung contended.

The trend for livestreaming in China has some strong applications for international trade shows, and that will likely ensure its adaption as a standard feature of Chinaplas, even after international travel resumes, she said.

"I think more people can really join the show," she said. "Because in the past, if you miss it, then you miss it. But now, even if you can't watch it live, you can watch it in playback afterwards. In the past, a majority of our visitors were from China and Asia, but now we can have more visitors from the [United] States or from other countries. So I think this is a benefit of having digital and physical together."

Leung said Adsale was collaborating with more than 150 trade associations and platforms to broadcast the show and hoped for more than 1 million views combined.

Leung said that even though this is the first international plastics show during the pandemic, this year's Chinaplas may not be applicable as a model for future global fairs elsewhere in the world.

"I think each show will have their own arrangement according to the situation in that country or in the locations of the fairground," she said. "In general, I do believe these hygiene measures will be increased at exhibitions. But regarding the level, the degree, I think that will be decided by the pandemic situation and also the local situation of the venue."

But in China, these measures could become standard procedure at future editions of Chinaplas.