ICE Europe 2013: visitors up +16%

With a further increase in attendance (+16%), the eighth edition of ICE Europe turned out to be the largest thus far in the German converting and flexible materials event’s history. The organizers (Mack Brooks Exhibitions) recorded the arrival of 6,600 machines, products and systems to Munich between the 19th and 21st of last March, originating from 64 countries.

An exhibition space of 10,100 m2 was shared by 401 exhibitors from 19 different countries, 41% of whom non-Germans: first among them Britons, Italians, Americans, Swiss and French.
The international profile of the visitors present was also marked (44%), mainly from Italy, Austria, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Turkey. The most well-represented sector was packaging (33%), followed by engineering (21%), paper (20%), packaging printing (18%), chemicals (15%), textiles and non-woven fabrics (13%), automotive (10%) and electronics (7%).
Areas of greatest interest: coating and lamination (54%), longitudinal cutting and rewinding (51%), flexo and rotogravure printing (29%), accessories (29%), materials (28%), controls, testing and measurement (26%), finishing (24%), custom coating/converting/longitudinal cutting (21%), drying and vulcanization (19%).

The success of CCE - But the most important novelty in the 2013 event was the fact that the first edition of CCE International was being held at the same time. This new fair is dedicated to technologies for processing corrugated and folding carton.
Featuring 110 exhibitors in a space of 3,300 m2, with more than 2,000 visitors in attendance (more than those to the ICE), the event is the first in the sector to be held in Europe following the closing of Corrugated in Paris some ten years ago. With much appreciation of the exhibitors, who have largely already confirmed their presence at the next year, as well as the visitors, the event also welcomed a promising number of representatives from Italian boxworks, organized by the sector’s national trade association.
Many crossed national borders to reach this event as well: approximately 70% of visitors and 80% of exhibitors were non-German, the latter coming from Italy (which surpassed even the number of Germans in attendance), Great Britain, the USA, France, the Netherlands and China. Visitors, on the other hand, hailed from Germany, followed by Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Russia, Poland, Turkey, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Egypt and Ukraine.
ICE Europe 2015 will be held in Munich, March 24th-26th, along with the next CCE International, preceded by ICE USA (Orlando, Florida, April 9th-11th, 2013) and ICE Asia (Shanghai, September 17th-19th, 2014).