Intertextile sees record edition following Shanghai move

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Mar 31, 2014

Intertextile, the major Chinese textile trade fair gathered 40,000 visitors from March 3 to 5, a record for its summer edition, which took place for the first time in Shanghai instead of Beijing. According to co-organizer Messe Frankfurt, attendance rose by 60% as compared to the same event held in March 2013. Even more impressively, there was a 105% spike in attendance by foreigners.

While the presence of Chinese professionals grew by 52%, it was the surge in foreign visitors that demonstrated the increasing influence of the trade fair. Some 91 countries were represented over the course of three days, such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, India and the United States constituting the largest number of visitors.

As regards the 23 foreign countries with exhibiting companies, the greatest numbers were from Italy, through Milano Unica, then South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong.

“The growth in attendance as a result of the move to Shanghai in terms of exhibitors as well as buyers - Chinese or foreign - has exceeded all our expectations," says Wendy Wen, senior General Manager at Messe Frankfurt.

“The city has proven itself as the perfect place for a textile fair of this kind, and as a result of this growth, we will be setting up a larger exhibition space.”

By leaving Beijing for Shanghai, Intertextile has moved closer to the center of Chinese textile and garment production. This has effectively strengthened the potential power of show in terms of Chinese attendance for a summer edition that has traditionally proven smaller than that in October (the last edition was attended by 3,751 exhibitors and 69,000 visitors).

But this Chinese growth must be matched carried by international interest in the show. While welcoming the trade fair’s many opportunities as well as its networking potential, many foreign visitors have expressed disappointment, for example, by the lack of translation available at some of the conferences.
The summer show also highlighted an increased appetite for ever higher-end products, a phenomenon that was also apparent at the last edition. This demand appears to have delighted foreign exhibitors. From their point of view, the increased quality of Chinese production would in turn meet a growing response among local dealers anxious to continue to supply entry level products while also meeting the growing demand for top quality apparel.

Leaving behind the Shanghai Exhibition Center which hosts the October sessions, this edition was held at Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, a large three-level building originally built for the 2010 Universal Exhibition, which in any case fulfilled its role as a transition space.

Although there were hiccups involving trolleys blocking nearby streets and poorly-organize taxi ranks, professionals and organizers have provided more space for restaurants. As for the March 2015 edition of the show, Intertextile will be moving permanently to the new China Expo Complex.