Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition was held again this year with exciting new opportunities for participants to gain a foothold in China.
It was a show more than just textiles this time, it was the perfect chance for visitors and exhibitors from around the world to also understand the lifestyle trends and evolving concepts in the growing Chinese home textiles and furnishings market.
The fair was held from 27 – 29 August 2013 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. Last year had seen a record number of exhibitors taking part, with over 1,300 companies from 29 countries and regions, which in turn had attracted over 39,000 trade buyers from 100 countries and regions. This year, exhibitors from all over the world were present, as well as pavilions from Belgium, Greece, India, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan and Turkey.
Some of Europe and Asia’s leading bedding & toweling suppliers were in Shanghai to take advantage of the burgeoning domestic market at Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition, the largest home textiles trade event in Asia.
Over 1,350 home textile suppliers from 31 countries and regions exhibited in 12 halls across 138,000 sqm at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. As was the case for last few years Turkey has been the largest foreign exhibiting country with over 40 companies. Uludag Textile Exporters’ Association (UTIB) organized the Turkish national participation.
Mr. Osman Canik, Deputy Chairman of the Board of UTIB, hosted the Turkish exhibitors and Chinese businessmen and delivered a speech during the event. He pointed out the fast growing Sino-Turkish economic relations and stressed the need to continue the uprising trend.
He said: “We are all very pleased to be here. I would like to thank you for your participation, on behalf of the Turkish Exporters Assembly, Uludag Textile Exporters Association and Turkish Textile sector. China, with its 1 billion 330 million population and more than 11,3 trillion $ Gross Domestic Product according to purchasing power parity; is the world’s second largest economy. In 2012, China has realized approximately 2 trillion 44 billion dollars exports and 1 trillion 748 billion dollars imports.
As a result, China generated a trade surplus of about 296 billion dollars. “In addition; in 2012 China, with approximately 72 billion dollars textile exports, 176 billion dollars clothing exports and 38 billion $ home textile exports is still the world’s number one.”
Canik said that at the foreign trade between Turkey and the People’s Republic of China has been increasing year by year. “In 2012, Turkey’s exports to China have been 2,8 billion dollars; while Turkey’s imports from China reached 21,3 billion dollars. Even though there is still a foreign trade deficit, Turkey has increased its exports with a higher percentage. “
Osman Canik gave some details about the Sino- Turkish relations: “Turkey, one of the top three home textile exporters in the world, made approximately 3 billion dollars home textile exports in 2012. On the other hand; in 2012 China’s home textile imports were nearly 3 billion dollars.
China had the 73rd rank in our home textile exports in 2007. As a result of our efforts during the previous years in 2011 China increased among the top 20 export partners of Turkey. Now our goal is to raise China among the top 10 export partners of Turkey in home textile sector.
“If we look at our textile exports to China, we have realized the full 10 fold increase in exports in the last 10 years and reached $ 150 million. China’s imports in the same period increased from $ 15 billion to $ 36 billion, with 2.5-fold increase. In this regard, Turkey and China are getting to know and getting closer to each other every day. These kinds of developments which have resulted due to mutual cooperation are very positive for us. There is a lot of business we will do together.
“Furthermore, we have been assisting our exporting companies, through China Country Desk which I am the coordinator of. We have also been working in coordination with the Ministry of Economy of Turkey in order to assist our companies to reach the necessary information quickly and accurately.
“With the fast economic growth rate and huge population, internal markets of China boost without doubt and increasingly require high product quality in contract business areas. One of the leading luxury hotel brands around the world, is planning to open over 100 hotels in the mainland of China in the near 4 years. It is quite the contrary if you know this company only owns 17 hotels around this huge land in the Far East in the past 25 years, demonstrating that the company has decided to change its slow penetration strategy to rapid expansion in China in order to catch obvious business opportunities.
Until now, aforementioned company’s overseas business in emerging markets has occupied 50 % in its global performance from 15%, that of the statistic in 2007. Therefore, for contact business in textile industry, how to meet the unique and luxury needs in this hotel, will be a fundamental question for all companies that want to capture one piece of this big cake.
“As Turkey’s one of the brilliant sectors of Turkey one of our main goals is to take a respectable and permanent place in Chinese market with our own brands. In this context, we believe that there is a lot that Turkey and China will learn from each other and bilateral cooperation will create beneficial results.
We are glad that the positive and strong relations that we have pursued in the last few years have strengthened the relations of industrialists and exporters in both countries.”
Leading bedding & toweling suppliers from Europe and Asia featured
Among the prestigious European companies participating this year was Curt Bauer from Germany. This 130-year-old company showcased its Long Life Basics brand of bedding at Intertextile.
Italy had a strong representation of bedding & toweling exhibitors this year. Some of these included Martinelli Ginetto and Marzotto who had brought their jacquard / plain fabrics & cotton, and blankets & throws, respectively. Also from Italy is Lyontex, who has been producing high-quality jacquard cloth since the 1950s. Their entire production process takes place in Italy, but the materials for their bedding and table items come from around the world: pure Egyptian cotton, Italian linen, Indian silk and Australian wool.
Debut ‘Proposte China Pavilion’ from Italy and returning highlights
Further strengthening the internationalism of the fair was the debut appearance of the Proposte China Pavilion @ Intertextile. Proposte is one of the preeminent home textile fairs in Europe, and their pavilion featured premium Italian and other European decorative and furniture fabrics manufacturers.
Returning again this year were country / region pavilions from Belgium, India, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan and Turkey. Highend suppliers from a number of European countries had been grouped in the European Hall (hall W1), and displayed the latest bedding, i n t e r i o r f a b r i c s a n d accessories. In addition, eight regional Chinese pavilions featured in halls E3 – E7.
