Attractive dates and venue

The latest edition of the China International Hardware Show (CIHS), which has been in existence for 15 years, saw significant growth in the number of visitors and exhibitors. The organisers have spoken of nearly 50 000 visitors, an increase of around 27 per cent compared with last year. At the same time, exhibitor numbers increased by roughly eight per cent to 2 900, while the number of foreign exhibitors in particular more than doubled to 300. An overall exhibition area of 150 000 m² was occupied.
The enhanced figures justify the decision to move the fair within Shanghai and shift the dates to the second half of October. Staged from 21 to 23 October 2015, the event took place in the new National Exhibition & Convention Centre (NECC) for the first time. The exhibition centre, which opened in the autumn of 2014, has 400 000 m² of covered exhibition halls and 100 000 m² of outdoor showgrounds. The operators speak of "the world's largest single block building and exhibition complex in terms of size".
The dates of 21 to 23 October have also been set for 2016, when the exhibition centre is expected to have added an extra 10 000 m² of space. One reason for this is the proximity in time to the autumn session of the Canton Fair, so that international buyers can combine the two fair visits. The layout including the international hall, tools hall, building hardware hall and lockset hall is to be retained. Moreover, a gardening area will be launched in the east hall.

The CIHS is organised by the German company Koelnmesse and the China National Hardware Association. It is considered to be the largest international hardware event in Asia and the second largest in the world. Germany and Taiwan had large pavilions at the show and there were national group participations by India, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.
The accompanying programme offered 22 projects and 33 on-site activities. In addition to the "Buying Day", "China Building Hardware Product Innovation Design Competition" and other activities which were popular with the visitors during the previous editions, CIHS 2015 also released a series of new activities. These included the "Match & Meet Program" which matches the exhibitors and the visitors' demands, the "Hardware Tour" specially designed for…