Overview

After the fast growing in size and fame in the past 5 years, STONETECH 2009 SHANGHAI is still seeing a growth in the number of participants and attendees as well as its internationalization even if the global economic condition is so challenging. A total number of 800 exhibitors came to the exhibition. Trade attendees came from around the globe, but a dramatic fall of the American attendees was witness as it had been predicted. However, over 30,000 pieces of exhibits were displayed.

 

STONETECH 2009 SHANGHAI covered an area of 80,000 sqm of Shanghai New International Expo Center. It's not an increase in terms of size compared with its last edition in 2008, however, the 4 exhibiting halls were so well used that in somewhere people felt 'crowded' to a reasonable degree.

 

Exhibitors

In the past 16 years, more and more members of stone industry regarded STONETECH as a prestigious event with presence of almost every leading player for this industry throughout China and the world. The combination of machinery, tools, blocks and final products provides a most comprehensive display of productivity solutions for the stone industry under one roof.

 

The exhibitors were enthusiastic on displaying their top-selling products, new machines and new stone colors. Many booths were filled up by the visitors. The staffs were so busy receiving the guests that they even did not have time for a swallow of water. Many international companies have made their reservation as soon as the previous one ended and they kept on showing themselves every year in the fair.

 

National Pavilions

On STONETECH 2009, visitors could find national pavilions as usual under the identical decoration of each country.

 

The Italians would never be missing, and making up the Italians' appearance in the hall were two pavilions respectively dedicated to Italian stone (Marble) producers and equipments manufacturers. Seeing a huge decrease in demand of their products in Europe and the North America, the Italians are turning more to their Asian market represented by the current world's stone trading and working center of China, although the Italian stone processing equipments are being challenged by their Chinese counterparts whose products are similar in quality but competitive in price.

 

The Brazilians too, have been a regular client of STONETECH since many years ago. And it's known with the help of custom statistics that the main export destination of Brazilian granites is China. Blocks are exported to China in a huge scale yearly where after processing they are transformed into slabs and tiles and used in China or exported again to other parts of Asia. The continuing growth of the Sino-Brazilian trade figures is a big reason why the Brazilian pavilion is always among the most magnificent ones in the International Hall.
The same are the national pavilions from Turkey, Egypt, and Morocco and so on where stone raw materials are excavated and exported to the world. Their appearance in marvelous pavilion decoration shows the importance they put on STONETECH.

 

Trade Visitors

The two alternative cities, i.e. Beijing and Shanghai are the top ones which develop most rapidly in China. They hold a lot of experienced architects, contractors and designers. Besides, the transport services of Beijing and Shanghai are convenient and speedy. No wonder that exhibiting in these two cities can get good results because the serious buyers have good access to communicating with the stone sellers face to face.

 

The organizers have never stopped the efforts of bringing trade visitors for the exhibitors. Since the early preparation, the advertisements and the fair information were released on both magazines and the internet to the traditional industrial nations and the emerging stone-consuming areas as well. The result was very positive. A lot of international companies and individuals left messages online or sent emails with the same intention to attend the show. The figures were most convincing to this fact. In STONETECH 2009, 57.63% visitors planed to collect market information and 45.76% paid their first attention to slabs. Among the visitors 36.65% were from stone processing companies and 18.09% were from IMP &EXP companies. As for the main function, 48.31% visitors were CEOs, general mangers or vice general managers. Trade or purchase managers occupied 17.80%.

 

Meanwhile, the organizers offered their best service to the visitors on hotel reservation, visa application, and information enquiry and so on, as the organizers were well aware of the importance of the professional visitors.

 

Featured Events

During STONETECH 2009 SHANGHAI, a series of seminars, conferences and forums were held to enrich the exhibition and provide more information to the audience.

The organizers have invited the President of CCPIT Sichuan who brought 705 pieces of information for the topic Sichuan Earthquake Rebuild. The Chairman of China Stone Material Industry Association, the vice-director of MOFTEC and two professionals of stone industry shared expertise on New Idea and Opportunity for Stone Industry under Current Economic Situation. Companies from China and Austria also gave speeches to introduce their stone products and repair technology. In a word, the activities attracted a large audience. After the meetings the participants said the information were practical and they were willing to attend such meetings again.

 

Market and Future

The global economy crisis is making trouble to most countries on earth, especially to those European and North American ones who have been recognized by the world as the main stone consumers. The 'collapse' of the US' real estate industry is causing a huge descend of stone products' export to America.

 

China too, is being challenged by this sudden crisis. But China has realized that making good use of its domestic demand would be of great help under the circumstances that the Foreign Capital Investment and the Import & Exports are both declining. And a budget of RMB 4 trillion equaling EUR 440 billion has been planned and approved by the State Department. This huge amount will be used to build railways, express ways, airports, city infrastructure and to develop China's vast suburban area.

 

A series of figures can help understand how building railways only will increase the need of social productivity including stone materials of course. Investing every EUR 1.1 billion to build railways can create a demand of EUR 4.2 billion for steel, concrete and stone, and an additional need of EUR 220 million for other building materials. And in a single year of 2009, there will be a sum of EUR 67 billion used to build railways.

 

Moreover, the calculation above did not take into account the infinite needs for stone as a decorative material for the numerous cities, towns and villages where the newly-built railways will stretch to on China's vast territory. For stone exporters from outside China, this country is a real big potential market. Some exhibitors from overseas said to STONETECH that when outputting raw blocks to China, they have decided to increase their contact with the stone end users in China. And these end users are considered to be a more fixed source of income compared with the traders and stone workshops in south China. Where there is the need, there is the chance!

 

An increase in the number of foreign exhibitors to STONETECH is predicted because it is believed that sharing the big stone market will not only be the Chinese stone producers, but the stone suppliers from outside China as well. It is time the international exhibitors considered for more importance they would need to attach to STONETECH. And thus, we see the future of this exhibition.