At the time of the deadline for stand assignments, more than 800 exhibitors have registered for the plastics and rubber industries trade fair "Plast 2018" (www.plastonline.org) taking place in Milan / Italy from 29 May - 1 June 2018. Organiser Promaplast (Milan; www.promaplast.org) said this is a 6% increase in assigned area compared to the same deadline for Plast 2015 and there is a 10% increase in the number of new exhibitors.

According to Promoplast, the increase in exhibitors reflects a positive economic situation in the sector, which was highlighted in Assocomaplast's (Milan; www.assocomaplast.org) report this March – see Plasteurope.com of 23.03.2017. In 2016, exports of machinery, equipment and moulds for plastics and rubber for the Italian market were up 1.7% from 2015 at a record EUR 2.97 bn. Assocomaplast president Alessandro Grassi says, "Italian manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery appear optimistic again in 2017, expecting to see further gains in production and exports in the neighbourhood of two percentage points." The mood in Italy's plastics processing segment in the first half of 2017 is fairly positive as well (see Plasteurope.com of 30.05.2017).

As part of the "Innovation Alliance", Plast 2018 brings together four other exhibitions to take place at the same time: "Ipack-Ima" and "Meat-Tech" (www.ipack-ima.com/en) as well as "Print4All" (www.print4all.it/en) and "Intralogistica Italia" (www.intralogistica-italia.com/en). Plast 2018 will also feature three satellite shows: "Rubber 2018", "3D Plast" and "Plast-Mat".

Plast 2015 attracted 50,087 visitors and 1,584 exhibitors – see Plasteurope.com of 27.05.2015.