If anyone still harboured any doubts, the first day of “K 2016” should have laid those to rest. The plastics economy is booming, and the interest of expert visitors is not just high, but actually higher than during the previous two editions of K. The 26,000 visitors that came to Düsseldorf on Day 1 constituted a 12% rise over the previous edition. For the exhibitors, this fact alone should compensate for all the hard efforts of the past few days and weeks. True, the weather leaves much to be desired. But that in turn means that the visitors are spending that much more time in the halls itself, inspecting everything on view.

“That is what you call a strong start,” one exhibitor from the raw materials hall said. Machinery manufacturers also had little to complain about. “It was not bad at all for a first day,” was their conclusion. The fair organiser also expressed satisfaction with the visitor numbers.