The recent ITMA Europe in Barcelona, Spain, closed its doors Sept. 29, 2011, and the next one will take place in Milan in November 2015. Some 1,350 exhibitors welcomed visitors from all over the world, mainly from countries and regions such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Western Europe, Brazil, and Latin America in general. Many exhibitors expressed their satisfaction that visitors not only were coming to their booths to see the latest technology in textile machinery, but also signed a considerable number of contracts, which - as usual - were not foreseen to be signed at ITMA.

Among the exhibitors interviewed by Textile World Asia , nobody was surprised that very few Chinese visitors came to see the latest high-performance innovations from the mainly Western textile machinery industry that exhibited in Barcelona. As already mentioned, virtually all the visitors came from outside China.

There are some obvious reasons for the absence of the current giant of the textile industry in Barcelona: For certain, one is the upcoming ITMA Asia + CITME next year in Shanghai; other reasons could be the recent volatile financial market and probably some visa restrictions. Well, the majority of all those countries that were present in numbers are starting to challenge the Chinese giant. And the chances today are probably more favorable for these up-and-coming countries than ever before. Just as times have changed for other countries in the Asia Pacific Rim, they have for China, too. Rising energy costs, tough environmental laws and the rising middle class are causing a lot of problems for China.

However, if one thinks about the setup of domestic exhibitions, or ITMA Asia, one can recognize that up to now, ITMA in Europe is undoubtedly still the number-one exhibition in terms of new or updated machinery and auxiliary equipment. And from this point of view, one could say that missing a visit to ITMA Europe and the splendid city of Barcelona was probably something of a missed opportunity.

October/November/December 2011