Toloken

Against that backdrop, the granddaddy of Japan’s shows, the International Plastic Fair (IPF), recently had its first-ever pre-show event for plastics trade press from outside Japan.

The organizers said they want to attract more international visitors to the show, which happens every three years and will take place in November in Tokyo.

Another reason for the outreach, I think, is the poor global economy. IPF officials said Japanese machinery firms are looking at a steeper-than-expected decline in machinery sales this year, courtesy of the U.S. mortgage crisis, among other factors.

IPF bills itself as the place where the technology-oriented Japanese firms unveil their latest innovations.

I got a glimpse of some of that technology, but what I thought was equally interesting was the large shadow that China cast in the room.

Unprompted, show officials in their opening remarks took a not very subtle swipe at the biggest Chinese show, Chinaplas, by saying that even while that show gets bigger, Japan is the place to be if you want to sell the best (i.e. most profitable) equipment to the big Japanese multinationals.

“Decision makers for Honda and Toyota are not in China, they are in Japan,” Minoru Shibata, IPF chief exhibition manager, told reporters.

“As a matter of size, we can’t defeat Chinaplas,” he told me later. “They are huge now. … But there is one thing we can still say about IPF. IPF is the most advanced technological show, I would say, in the world.”

It’s probably the only strategy really available to IPF -- focus on technology.

At the last Chinaplas, held in April in Shanghai, I met non-Chinese firms that told me they were exhibiting in Shanghai not because they particularly wanted to sell to China, but because they saw it as a place where the whole world comes looking for low-cost equipment.

I go to a lot of trade shows in Asia, and I agree with that assessment. Chinaplas is becoming a place where the world goes bargain shopping. By comparison, I went to the ASEANPlas show in May in Singapore, and saw an exhibition that was struggling.

However, there is a role for IPF and others. Given China’s serious problems with protecting intellectual property, and its price-sensitive market, it will take a while before Chinaplas can become a show for seeing the latest and greatest technology.

So what technology will we see at IPF in November?

Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd. said it plans to unveil the world’s only all-electric, one-step stretch blow molding machine, for high-end medical and pharmaceutical markets. Injection press maker Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd. plans to showcase technology for molding carbon nanotube compounds, and help supply those compounds. Materials maker Teijin Chemicals Ltd. touted new bio-based polymers.

It’s a cliché to talk about globalization changing the business world, but indulge me as I say that globalization will make IPF especially interesting this year.

What I mean is, this year saw Japanese molding machine maker Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. buy Germany’s Demag Plastics Group, a major linkup between Japanese and European firms. Toshiba Machine Co. Ltd. and Krauss Maffei AG followed with a technology partnership.

I think we’re going to see more of those mergers and partnerships between the best of firms from developed economies, as they try to fend off challenges from the rising plastics equipment makers in developing countries.

That, for now at least, is going to keep shows like IPF very relevant.

Steve Toloken is Plastics News’ Guangzhou-based Asia bureau chief.