On 5 May the triannual “Plast” (www.plastonline.org) industry fair opened its doors in Milan / Italy. Some 1,558 exhibitors, spread across 55,000 m², presented their goods at the five-day fair, organiser Promaplast (Milan; www.promaplast.org) said during the opening ceremony, adding that it had received 14,000 visitor pre-registrations, twice the number of 2012.

On the first day of the European fair, the organisers announced that the next “Plast” will be held a year earlier, from 26-30 September 2017, to avoid conflicts with other leading industry fairs. This deviation from its triannual schedule will be just a one-off occurrence, Promaplast said, adding that it will prevent overlaps that would have otherwise occurred in the spring of 2018. Already that year the leading US fair “NPE” will be held in May. Other international events that will take place then include Brazil’s “Feiplastic”, “Chinaplas” and “Plastindia”.

Promaplast said the decision to reschedule “Plast” was made in accordance with the Milan fairgrounds, adding that the new date will allow leading exhibitors time to attend all the fairs. The organisers also said that the gap of three weeks to the 2017 “Fakuma” fair will allow participants “reasonable time” to organise for both events.