Citing uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the ambiguities regarding the timeline of vaccinations around the world, trade-fair organisers are starting to postpone and shift events’ dates again. Here are a few recent developments from the organisers of some international plastics industry events.

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, composites world trade fair “JEC World”, Paris, will not be taking place. In November 2020, organiser JEC Group (Paris / France; www.jeccomposites.com) had announced a three-month postponement from March to June 2021 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.11.2020), but even this rescue mission has now failed. The leading composites show will now be held on 8-10 March 2022.

The postponement could be a result of cancellations by companies – among others, the manufacturer of pultruded and wound composites profiles, Exel Composites (Mäntyharju / Finland; www.exelcomposites.com), had declared that it did not want to occupy a stand at JEC in June 2021.

After being postponed once already – from 4-7 May to 22-25 June 2021 (see Plasteurope.com of 04.01.2021), Italian trade fair “Plast” (www.plastonline.org) has been postponed “to a future date that is yet to be determined”. The event will, however, certainly not take place in 2021. New dates for the event will be released in the next few weeks.

The previous edition of the plastics trade fair took place in Milan from 29 May to 1 June 2018. It featured 1,510 exhibitors from 55 countries, occupied a net area of 55,000 m² in six halls of Fiera Milano in Rho-Pero, and drew in 63,000 visitors from 117 countries.

Being organised by Crain Communications (Croydon / UK; www.crain.co.uk), polyurethanes conference and exhibition “Utech Europe” (www.utecheurope.eu) in Maastricht / The Netherlands has been moved from September 2021 to 16-18 November 2021. During its previous edition in May 2018, Utech Europe saw 10,113 visitors and 5,239 conference attendees, representing 90 countries (see Plasteurope.com of 21.06.2018).

The annual conference held by industry association Europur (Brussels / Belgium; www.europur.com) and Euro-Moulders (Brussels; www.euromoulders.org) had earlier been scheduled for the same dates as the exhibition (16-18 November 2021). To avoid the confusion, however, the annual meeting has now been moved to 3-4 November 2021. The conference will take place in Amsterdam / The Netherlands, and the board meetings of both associations will take place on 2 November 2021. Registration for the event is scheduled to open in May 2021. The deadline for the call for papers has been extended to 31 March 2021. Presentations related to circular economy, digitalisation, mitigation of odour and VOCs and health and safety will be given a priority; proposals can be sent to Michel Baumgartner( m.baumgartner@europur.org).

Originally scheduled for 15-18 June 2021 (see Plasteurope.com of 04.05.2020), the premiere of the restructured French plastics trade show “France Innovation Plasturgie” (FIP; www.f-i-p.com – see Plasteurope.com of 21.05.2019) has been postponed to 5-8 April 2022, organiser Idice (Oyonnax / France) has announced. The event will take place at Lyon Eurexpo.

The French event that showcases additive manufacturing, “3D Print Congress & Exhibition” (www.3dprint-exhibition.com), was scheduled to take place at the same time as FIP in Lyon. It has now been postponed to 5-8 April 2022.

For more details on this year’s trade fairs and conferences, please see Plasteurope.com’s extensive event list.