MEXICO CITY – International exhibition organizer E.J. Krause & Associates Inc, of Bethesda, Md., is launching its second plastics industry show in Mexico, six years after acquiring Plastimagen México from Oprex SA de CV.
Plastimagen Norte will make its debut in Monterrey on March 4, 2014, and will run for three days, a spokesman for José Navarro, managing director of E.J. Krause de México SA de CV, based in Mexico City, told Plastics News March 14.
The new show will be held annually. Plastimagen México is held in the Mexican capital every 18 months. The 19th edition will be in November 2014.
"Plastimagen México grew 15 percent in size this year," Arturo Morales de la Campa, the show's marketing manager, said. "We have 800 exhibitors occupying 301,000 square ft and are expecting 30,000 visitors over the show's four days, 3,500 more than the previous edition."
Morales, however, said industrialists in northern Mexico want their own show. A rival company ran a plastics exhibition in the city for several years before taking it to Guadalajara in western Mexico a couple of years back.
"There's a demand for a regional show in Monterrey," said José del Cueto Gracia, president of industry association Anipac (Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico AC), which supports Plastimagen México, in a separate interview.
Del Cueto is optimistic that the government of Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto will push through reforms in Mexico's energy sector this year that will be beneficial to the country's plastic's industry.
He said Anipac expects changes to be made in the way state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is run. Of special interest to the association is the development of natural gas supplies in Mexico, he said.
Prior to the acquisition by E.J. Krause, Oprex held 14 Plastimagen trade shows, starting in 1987.
