After their four-day run as in-person events, interplastica, International Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber and upakovka – Processing & Packaging have succeeded. For the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the trade fair duo took place to live in Moscow. A total of 17,000 visitors came to the Central Exhibition Complex Expocentre from 25 to 28 January to see the innovations of 650 exhibitors from 32 countries, make or intensify contacts, and take part in the extensive lecture program. The mood in the halls was good, and exhibitors praised, in particular, the high quality of the contacts.
“interplastica 2022 was a great trade fair. Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland were represented with official country pavilions, as was Russia with its key players,” said a delighted Thomas R. Stenzel, managing director of Messe Düsseldorf Moscow. “Trade visitors at interplastica were finally able to exchange ideas with specialists in person again, discuss current issues in the industry and examine innovative solutions live,” continues Stenzel.
Participants found interplastica 2022 as very useful
Trade visitors from 63 countries, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine, unanimously praised the diversity of the exhibitors, their professionalism, and the high level of trade fair preparation. During the four days of the fair, the atmosphere in the exhibition halls was exceptionally busy and positive.
Suppliers from the fields of machinery and equipment for the production and processing of plastics and rubbers, raw and auxiliary materials, products made of polymers and rubbers, and services for the plastics and rubber industry presented themselves in Moscow. Many leading companies in the industry, such as Arburg, Atlasmash, Borche Machinery, Diflex, Engel, Erema, Fanuc, Formotronik, Haitian Russia, Kautex, Lukoil-RNP-Trading, PJSC Sibur Holding, Reifenhäuser, R&P Polyplastic, Resinex, Solan-D, Tomra Recycling were represented at interplastica 2022.
Kalojan Iliev, the managing partner at Erema Russia, sums up, “Our expectations of the event due to the current Covid situation were exceeded. Our stand was very well attended, important decision-makers were on site.”
The Italian industry association Amaplast also underlines the high professional competence of the visitors, “The quality of the contacts was excellent. The Italian companies are delighted with their participation and will definitely take part in interplastica again next year,” says Eleonora Iula, Exhibition Department project manager.
Samuel Tevosyan, chief executive officer Kautex Maschinenbau, Russia, “We had many interesting discussions and fully supported interplastica. Russia is a very important market for us, and interplastica is one of the most important platforms.”
Sergey Zharov, general director, Reifenhäuser & Co KG Maschinenfabrik, “The market and customers are noticeably active in Russia despite the Corona pandemic. We had successful days at interplastica. The visitors had concrete ideas, and good new contacts were made.”
Thorsten Kühmann, managing director of the Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association in the VDMA, states from the perspective of the German industry, “Exports of German plastics and rubber machinery to Russia already fell sharply in 2019 compared to previous years. However, after a strong upward trend in 2020, a downward trend set in again in 2021. This means that the Russian market has currently dropped out of the top 10 most important sales countries, but this huge market will retain an important position in the future.”
“Russian plastics processors value the long-standing relations with German mechanical engineering and the promise of quality ‘Made in Germany.’ In addition, the machine builders are very well positioned in the topics of recycling and circular economy – which are also gaining enormously in importance in Russia and can score points with their technologies against the non-European competition.”
