BEIJING — Chinese textiles and apparel manufacturers exhibiting at a flurry of recent trade shows here focused on capturing more U.S. and European business.
Exhibitors at the sixth annual Intertextile Beijing trade show said they saw increased global diversity among potential buyers coming through their booths. In addition, exhibitors benefited from the overlap of several other industry-related shows around the city, including the China International Trade Fair for Fibers & Yarns, the Beijing International Sewing Machinery & Clothing Accessories show and the first installment of the China International Clothing & Accessories Fair.
Intertextile Beijing ended its three-day run March 30 at the Beijing Exhibition Center, where 12 halls and three temporary tents covering about 323,000 square feet were filled to capacity to accommodate 689 exhibitors, up 23 percent from 2005. Companies from 18 countries and regions accounted for 255 of the exhibitors, and most vendors were from Italy, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Germany.
“We’ve seen very good growth in terms of both numbers and space,” said Annie Ma, trade fairs group manager for Messe Frankfurt, Intertextile Beijing’s organizer. “Our problem is that we don’t have enough space. We expanded by 4,000 square meters [43,000 square feet] and still had a wait list.”
Intertextile also featured three days of symposiums addressing industry topics ranging from trade policy to design trends. Intertextile Beijing attracted mostly Chinese buyers, but Ma noted that those buyers come from different domestic markets.
“Exhibitors meet different buyers here, mostly from the North and Northeast, compared to the South in Shanghai,” Ma said. “Some come here from south China, particularly to explore new markets.”
Last year’s edition of Intertextile Beijing attracted about 17,000 buyers, most of them Chinese. Of those, 47 percent came from northeastern China, 40 percent from Shanghai, 11 percent from Guangdong and south China and 2 percent from western China. Attendance figures for this year’s show were not available.
The predominance of Chinese buyers was frustrating to domestic exhibitors, but was positive for foreign participants. Some said the show’s greatest asset came not from increased business but from the networking and relationship-building opportunities it created.
“It is more for networking than actual business,” said Bruno Landi, a marketing manager with Ermenegildo Zegna, which has 50 stores and 6 percent of its market in China. “We already have regular customers and use the show to meet up with them, and to see what’s new in the industry, as well as collecting new names. We don’t get that many new customers because we are very selective about who we sell to.”
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Domestic manufacturers looking for a more global show were somewhat disappointed, but noted there were signs that the show was beginning to draw a larger contingent of Western and European clientele.
“We’re looking to export, mostly to the West, and to other East Asian markets, not to China,” said Hunter Tai, a representative of Taiwan’s La Mode Textile Co., which produces cloth for high-end women’s wear. “This year is much better. It’s still very Chinese, maybe 70 percent, but two years ago, it was more like 90 percent.”
Wu Qingyang, marketing director of Fujian Zhonghe, which had one of the busiest booths at the show, also wanted more Western clientele than Intertextile offered, but added that about 30 percent of the contacts made at last year’s exhibition became customers.
“As long as they’re good customers, it doesn’t matter where they’re from, although our target is North America and Europe,” said Madeleine Chi, manager of Zhejiang Bolide Textiles & Garments. The company produces 65 percent to 70 percent for export, of which “at least 50 to 60 percent is to the United States.”
Exhibitors at Yarn Expo, an offshoot of Intertextile Beijing also organized by Messe Frankfurt, said the parallel shows helped improve the mix of buyers passing through their booths.
In particular, the huge state ministry-organized Beijing International Sewing Machinery & Clothing Accessories Show, or BISMA, was held on the ground floor of the China World Trade Center, while the Yarn Expo ran on the second floor.
Katy Lam, trade fairs director of Messe Frankfurt, said the presence of BISMA “makes for a very complete exhibition, and you see all layers of the industry and production…The exhibitors of machinery on the first floor are the buyers for the yarn on the second floor.”
More than 110 fiber producers exhibited at the event, which ran March 29 to 31.
“This is our second time here at the Beijing show and we returned because business was very good last time, with 20 percent of the contacts we made here resulting in business deals,” said Suahil Haji Yunus, director of Latif Textile Mills, a Pakistani yarn manufacturer, noting that Latif has been developing the China market for a decade and exports 65 percent of its production to China. “It will probably become more after quotas end in 2008.”
China’s yarn imports grew 80 percent in the first half of 2005. China’s Commerce Minister, Bo Xilai, announced plans last month at the global textile economic forum in Beijing to establish textile cooperation zones with developing Southeast and South Asian countries.
Lam added that the two-year-old show is still establishing its reputation. This year there was growth in terms of countries represented and technologies offered.
“There are a lot of new fibers on the market this year, using materials like milk protein, egg and bamboo,” Lam said.
Next year, Intertextile Beijing will also spill over into China World, while maintaining the site at the Beijing Exhibition Center. It will run March 22 to 24; the next Intertextile Shanghai will be Oct. 26 to 28.