Stone+Tec 2005: Steady Surprise?
NUREMBERG, Germany – At Stone+tec 2005 in late May, many exhibitors grumbled not-so-quietly about the Chinese invasion. What they didn’t notice was the Italian withdrawal.
The four-day biennial event certainly held its own in attendance, with the 40,000-plus trade visitors comparing favorably to its last run in 2003. And, with a European stone industry with a less-than-optimistic demeanor in the first half of 2005, drawing a consistent crowd is very good news indeed.
For the record, the show drew 40,282 attendees from May 25-28 at Nuremberg’s Exhibition Centre. Two years earlier, the event drew 40,199 visitors; while the final 2005 number trails 2001’s 46,102, it still marks a strong showing.
The exhibition also shifted by one day from previous years, starting on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday. As in 2003, the Thursday of this year’s show also fell on the day of the Feast of the Ascension, a German holiday.
While 2003’s Thursday drew a steady-but-unspectacular crowd for opening day, this year’s Wednesday opening seemed light on attendance. The Thursday coinciding with the holiday this year, however, brought heavy traffic in exhibition-hall aisles and made the general mood a bit more upbeat.
“Moving the running time forward by a day has proved its worth right from the start,” says Walter Hufnagel, Member of the Management Board of NürnbergMesse. “The Wednesday has taken the place of the Sunday in numerical terms, and the attendance on this new opening day was marked by a large international share and a high degree of authority. The following three days of the exhibition were as convincing as usual in both quality and quantity terms.”
More than 30 percent of 2005’s attendees came from 81 countries outside Germany, showing a growing international attraction; out-of-country visitors made up 28 percent of 2003 attendance. Some of the new EU member states in Central Eastern Europe made strong showings, led by Hungary (up 48 percent from 2003), the Czech Republic (up 13 percent) and Poland (up seven percent).
“DNV is satisfied with the frequency of visitors at Stone+tec 2005,” said Reiner Krug, General Manager of the Deutscher Naturwerkstein-Verband e.V. (DNV). “A big demand for our native stones was still noticeable – despite the cheap competition from Asia.”
Specifically, exhibitors from the People’s Republic of China remained a sore point with plenty of European stone companies and equipment manufacturers. The strong standing of the euro not only cuts into business from the United States; China’s pegging of its currency to the U.S. dollar also dramatically lowers the cost on its goods in Europe.
The grousing about an increased presence from China was borne out on the exhibition floor, as the 173 Chinese companies represented a 22.6-percent increase from 2003. What few grasped, however, was a greater decline in participation from another country: Italy.
In 2003, 240 Italian companies exhibited at Stone+tec. This year, the Italian contingent totalled 179 companies – a 25.4-percent decline.
Among other countries, Germany’s 334 companies (down 7.7 percent from 2003) made up the largest share of the 1,058 total exhibitors. India’s participation dropped 50 percent from 2003 with its 23 companies this year – but Turkey’s 52 exhibitors represented a 40.5-percent increase from the previous Stone+tec.
The next Stone+tec takes place at the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg on June 6-9, 2007.