Features Community Event reports
Exploring the Indian market

The numbers are staggering.

The numbers are staggering. Import/export consultants Amritt Ventures (www.amritt.com ) estimates India needs over $1 trillion investment in housing and related infrastructure over the next five years, including 80 to 90 million housing units. The industry is growing at a 15 to 20 per cent clip, but still will fall short of meeting the demand for housing shopping malls, multiplexes, food outlets, office spaces, convention and business centres by 25 to 30 per cent. That’s a lot of windows. Canadian suppliers of glass products could hit the jackpot if they find a way to enter that red-hot market. To see Amritt’s full report on the Indian construction industry, check out our web exclusives at www.glasscanadamag.com.

You just can’t do anything in India without flowers. Lots of flowers.

One way to get started making contacts in India would be to attend a Glasspex India trade show. The results of the recently held Glasspex India 2011 in Mumbai confirmed the event has established itself as an permanent part of the international trade fair calendar. Some 176 exhibitors (compared to 139 exhibitors in 2009) from 19 countries represented the entire value chain of the glass manufacturing process to 4,072 visitors (compared to 3,200 visitors in 2009) from 31 nations. Renowned exhibitors such as Bottero, DSF Refractories, Emhart Glass, Grenzabach, Hindustan National Glass, Saint-Gobain SEFPRO and Shamvik Glasstech as well as Bassra Machine Tools, Den Breven, CUMI, IAG, Gujarat Borosil, K-bond, Techno Trade Links and Zippe Industrieanlagen participated.

Glasspex India 2011 had the support of Glasstec – the world‘s largest trade fair for the glass industry, which is organized every two years in Düsseldorf, Germany by Messe Düsseldorf. The company brought its expertise to India by organizing the show together with its subsidiary Messe Düsseldorf India, making it possible to reach crucial target groups for the Indian market.

Gohul Deepak from the Glazing Society of India, commented, “Glasspex 2011 was organized very well by Messe Düsseldorf India. The quality of visitors was excellent. It was an ideal opportunity to network with the stakeholders in the industry. We would like to continue our partnership with Messe Düsseldorf for Glasspex India in the future.”

More visitors than in 2009, good networking opportunities and promising new contacts and projects – that is how the VDMA (German Engineering Federation) Forum Glass Technology summarized the results. German exhibitors are anticipating successful post-show business. “We also see a positive trend for the Indian market. There will be tremendous demand for glass in India over the next few decades, which holds great potential for machine builders. Taking this into account, as well as the excellent development of the exhibition within two years, VDMA looks forward to a very good outlook for the next show in 2013,” stated Dr. Bernd-Holger Zippe, chairman of the VDMA Forum Glass Technology.

Michele Gusti, managing director of OCMI, noted, “I am very pleased that all our customers from India visited our booth. We also have some very interesting new prospects.”

Wolfgang Schulze-Kadelbach, sales manager at Gardner Denver, added, ”This location was better than the last Glasspex exhibition, with excellent road connections. Being at a central location, it is very convenient for both exhibitors and visitors. The organization team offered quick and personalized service. It was possible to get new contacts and there were good opportunities to promote new sales. In just three days, maximum interaction with customers was possible.”

UV Printers India was participating in Glasspex India for the first time. “The digital printing technology on glass and ceramics that we presented had generated tremendous interest among the visitors. That can only happen if the visitors are knowledgeable. The credit for this must go to the organizers, as they succeeded in reaching the right audience.”

The second Glass Performance Days India (GPD) was held from Jan. 11-12, focusing on such challenges facing the Indian market as glass architecture, flat glass and solar technology. Over 100 high-ranking national and international visitors attended on each day of GPD. Brown Onduso from the GPD India Organizing Committee summarized. “As part of our commitment to provide the best possible service, GPD teams up with other leading organizations to hold world-class conferences in different parts of the world,” he said. “Co-operating with Messe Düsseldorf India provided us with a partner that shares the same vision: Quality. Organizing GPD India in conjunction with Glasspex India 2011 offered participants two high-quality events at the same time that provided high-quality education and networking opportunities with experts from different fields of the glass industry worldwide, combined with ample international business and networking opportunities with professionals from the flat and hollow glass industries.”

Dave Fordham, publishing and events director at Glass Worldwide, praised the synergies achieved between the trade fair and the congress. “Having been involved with the All India Glass Manufacturers‘ Federation (AIGMF) sponsoring glass exhibitions since their beginning in the mid-1990s it is very impressive to see how Messe Düsseldorf has put its stamp on the event and expanded it so that Glasspex is now a major highlight of the global glass industry calendar,” he said. “The accompanying GPD and solar conference also added significant value for visitors at the 2011 staging.”

Another event held concurrently with Glasspex India 2011 was the Solar Industry Summit India conference, which focused on development, financing and realization of production facilities, the latest production technologies, the international solar power market and the current quality assurance standards. This was the first time that this technical conference, organized in co-operation with Solarpraxis, took place and it was attended by about 100 representatives from Indian and international solar power companies, suppliers and investors.

“Glasspex India and the partnership with Messe Düsseldorf offered us a very good framework to position our first conference on the promising Indian solar power market. We are very satisfied with the great interest and the good feedback from the participants and we are looking forward to more projects in India in the future,” stated Miriam Hegner, head of the conference department at Solarpraxis.

Two other events completed the Glasspex India 2011 exhibits: the ninth conference of the AIGMF, with the topic Managing Sustainable Growth attended by about 150 participants. The special show about the future of glass and solar technology was especially popular with architects, civil engineers, planners and designers.

The next Glasspex India will take place in Mumbai from March 20-22, 2013. For further information on visiting or exhibiting at Glasspex India 2013, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America. •