The 17th China International Glass Industrial Technical Exhibition (China Glass 2006) was held on 25 to 28 April, 2006 in Beijing. This show was organized by the Chinese Ceramic Society and co-organized by the China National Association for Glass Industry and the Chinese Architectural and Industrial Glass Association. The exhibition area reached 35,000 m2 and there were 568 exhibitors, coming from 24 countries: China, Germany, Italy, the US, the UK, France, Canada, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Czech, Poland, Australia, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia, Israel and Singapore. Among them, there are 234 foreign exhibitors, including 4 state exhibitors groups.

Presented at the exhibition are Zhang Renwei, Chairman of the China Building Material Industry Association and President of the Chinese Ceramic Society, Niu Jianguo, Deputy Director of the Economic Operation Bureau, China National Development and Reform commission, Yu Zhen, Chairman of China Machinery Industry Federation, Yang Zipeng, Vice Chairman of the China National Light Industry Council, Liang Yingnan, Deputy Director of the International Department of the China Association of Science and Technology, Zhao Xiaomin, Deputy Director of the Society Department of the International Department of the China Association of Science and Technology, Lei Qianzhi, Vice Chairman of the China Building Material Industry Association, and other leaders and distinguished guests, Sun Xiangyuan, Xu Yongmo and Chen Guoqing, Mr. Claude Vincent, Commercial Counselor of the Belgium Embassy, Ludwin Schoepfely, Second Secretary of the German Embassy. Besides, this exhibition has received xxx professional visitors, coming from xx countries.

After consistent development in the past 20 years, the China International Glass Technical Industrial Exhibition, organized for the first time by the Chinese Ceramic Society in Shanghai 1978, it has currently become a leading glass exhibition in Asia and one of the three largest international glass exhibition, as famous as the GLASSTECH in Germany and the VITRUM in Italy, and at the same time a large exhibition platform of the greatest commercial significance for the Chinese glass circles.

This exhibition has the following features:

(1) Increasingly High Internationalization and Notable International Influence

At this event, exhibitors from overseas account for more than 40% and there were four state exhibitors group.

Numerous transnational groups and world-famous professional glass companies showed up at this exhibition, including Saint-Gobin Group, Vesuvius Group, PPG, Glasstech Inc., DuPond Co. Ltd., Asahi, Bando Kiko, Schott, Simens, Grenzebach, Tamglass, Bavelloni, Lisec and Bystronic. They came here along with their state-of-the-art technologies, equipment and products. Among the professional visitors, 2000 were from foreign countries. Many exhibitors said they received more visitors from foreign countries other than from China. Some renowned international organizations took this event as a platform to hold various activities. For instance, Tamglass and Z. Bavelloni held GPD China 2006. Besides, a German Pavilion Day and the Glasstec promotion meeting will be organized by the German Embassy and the Messe Düsseldorf GmbH respectively. The MMG had a news briefing for the “BAU 2007-International Trade Fair for Building Materials, Building Systems, Building Renovation” to be held in Beijing on Jan 15-20, 2007. The Chinese Ceramic Society and Chinese Architectural and Industrial Glass Association jointly organized and the Sixth National Symposium on Float Glass and Processed Glass. Moreover, 10 technical seminars were held associated with China Glass 2006. Apart from some world-class authoritative associations related to glass industry and glass mechanical industry, such as VDMA of Germany, GIMAV of Italy, who have had long-term fruitful cooperation with the Chinese Ceramic Society, GGF of the UK and NGA of the US, SGA of Singapore initiatively paid a call on the Chinese Ceramic Society for the cooperation between them. Therefore, the China International Glass Industrial Technical Exhibition has become a grand stage for the glass circles all over the world.

(2) A Large Group of Promising High-tech Products Displayed at the Show

Such high-tech products include special binding agent newly developed by Schott for calcium borate glass used in single-sheet fire-proof rooms; industry-use microcrystalline plates, low-expansion glass ceramic, crystallite nucleus material and glass ceramic used for paper manufacturing industry developed by Jinniu Glass Co.; DuPont displayed its SentryGlas?Plus (SGP structure interlayer) used for enhancing wind-proof and noise-proof capability of high buildings. Eglass International Ltd. showed its technology and equipment for Motherglass substrate production line used for TFT and other displays.

(3) Energy-saving Technology Prominent at the Show

Suffered from the shortage of energy sources, all countries have paid great attention to energy-saving technology in their glass industry. At this exhibition, you may see diversified energy-saving technologies related to not only production, but also application of glass products, such as oxy-fuel firing and oxygen-rich combustion, electric boosting and combustion control, power generation by Waste Heat from Glass Furnace, design of large-scale furnaces and technologies of insulation and vacuum technology.
　
(4) Rapid Development of Glass-processing Technology and Equipment

One of the highlights of the exhibition is Chinese manufacturers of glass-processing machinery. Either the areas of such booths and the level of their exhibits are attractive. A large number of non-governmental enterprises have been developed rapidly. Apart from coating equipment, preprocessing, tempering, hot-bending, laminating and insulating machines have showed very high competitiveness. They have sold their products mainly to Chinese customers before, but now most of the products are exported.
　
(5) Fruitfulness and Great Satisfaction

Preliminary statistics show that a large majority of the exhibitors have had good results and expressed their satisfaction to this exhibition. Especially, some Chinese manufacturers even sold their machines to foreign companies on the spot. A Korea exhibitor sold its two machines even though it is the first time of its participation. Italy-based Bavelloni sold two processing centers. Some foreign exhibitors were very happy that they have received much more European and American customers and establish long-term cooperation relations with them. Long queues could even be seen in front of some booths for trade talks or technical consultation. Almost all exhibitors hoped to attend the next show or expand their booths. According to incomplete statistics, 85% of the exhibition area of the next exhibition of 2007 has already been reserved.

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