PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2018

36 TRADE SHOW REVIEW PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 12/18 www.petpla.net TRADE SHOW review PART1 China Brew China Beverage 2018 - review part 1 One of the major trends in Asia’s beverage and liquid food market is: “quality, not quantity.” As incomes rise, people prefer to consume better products instead of more products. At the same time, demand for production systems and machines remains high. As a leading trade fair for the industry, China Brew China Beverage (CBB) provided a far-reaching over- view of the market with the exhibitors’ presentations and its comprehensive supporting programme. The number of exhibitors and visitors showed an increase: A total of 869 exhibitors meant an increase of 9%. The trade fair used eight fully booked halls, including two that were used by 256 international exhibitors. That represents a growth rate of 6%. Of the approximately 56,000 participants, a large number came from abroad, from countries as Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to inform themselves about trends of the entire process chain for all areas of the beverage and liquid food industry (last trade fair 2016: 53,183 participants). The next CBB will be held in October 2020 at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre (SNIEC). www.cbb.drinktec.com Continuous trend towards premiumisation and new brands proliferation in China PETplanet: Mr Bastien: Which topics have most interested your customers at this fair? Bastien: For us at Husky, we are seeing two conflicting trends in the market. On the one hand, we see a need for high performing plants and machinery for the ever-growing water business, and on the other hand, smaller more flexible facilities for emerging sectors such as household goods, sauces and emerging beverage brands. Additionally, we see the dairy market as having a large potential for conversion to PET. PETplanet: What systems are you using in the water market? Bastien: At the moment, we often use a 128 or 144 cavity mould in China. In the future, we anticipate even larger cavitation will be used more frequently. These larger platforms are already proven and in production in some other areas of the world, and we believe they are now ready to enter the Chinese market. The trend towards right-weighting and premiumisation is continuing, with 15-19g half-litre bottles being common in the market. PETplanet: And what about household and dairy products? Bastien: The competition is pushing brand owners to drive on-the-shelves differen- tiation and PET packaging is a great solution for this need. We are already seeing the switch from cartons and HDPE in the dairy market, while in the household market we see a strong potential for PET to replace HDPE packaging. In the personal care segment we have already sold three Multi-Layer systems, with those applications making the switch from HDPE to PET. In this case the manufacturer is using our technology to give the bottle an eye-catching colour to further increase shelf differentiation. PETplanet: How will the Chinese market develop over the next five years? Bastien: We anticipate both trends to continue, i.e. the growth of water driving the need for high-efficiency, high-output systems, and more flexible, lower-output plants to drive growth for emerging brands in local/remote areas . In parallel, Multi-Layer Technology will help to support a market that seeks more food safety through better package protection. What will change and what we are already seeing today is the speed and the quantity of new brands coming on to the market without a long life-time, requiring more agility and responsiveness to the market. The competition for market share is quite fierce, which is why we offer a variety of solutions for any application in order to help our customers’ products stand out on store shelves, while maintaining the lowest cost to produce. www.husky.co Blow moulds and preform moulds PETplanet: How was CBB for you? Au-Yeung: It was a great event for us to strengthen our bonds with partners and meeting new customers. PETplanet: Which of your prod- ucts highlighted here in Shanghai was of most interest to the visitors at your booth? Au-Yeung: Our precise blow mould and preform mould products had been the highlights to visitors. PETplanet: How much has the Chi- nese market changed in recent years? Au-Yeung: There has been an increasing and sustainable demand on healthy, innovative and user-friendly products in the beverage market. www.gdxl.com Aurelien Bastien (right), VP Beverage Pack- aging Sales Husky and Alexander Büchler Billy Au-Yeung, Marketing Specialist GDXL (left) with Aleander Büchler