APCS 2006 has strong showing.

A record number of visitors, representing 50 countries, attended the Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2006 APCS), held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia on June 20-22.

The APCS 2006 Exhibition and Conference was opened by Dato Sayed Saleh and Ian Faux, vice president of UK-based The Coatings Group, dmg world media. Highlights included the conference, exhibitor business presentations and the 6th APCS Awards ceremony.

The Exhibitor Business Presentations, held within the hall, were well received with high attendance reported by speakers throughout. The Asia Pacific Coatings Conference, organized by CoRI (Coatings Research Institute) and The Coatings Group, ran alongside the show for the first day and a half. It was fully booked with standing room only available, and featured a full program of technical papers with the theme "New Advances in Organic Coatings Technology & Science."

The 6th APCS Awards were held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The winners were: Most Innovative Product Award--Buhler; Environmental Award--Hoffman Mineral; Best Conference Paper Award--Peter Schertenleib of Netzsch-Feinmahltechnich GmbH for his paper "The [alpha]MIX--A New Dispersion Process;" Best Marketing Campaign Award--Cognis; Best Purpose-Built Stand Award--Bayer MaterialScience; and Best Shell Scheme Stand Award--Arch Chemicals.

In response to exhibitor and visitor feedback from previous shows, the Asia Pacific Coatings Show will now alternate between two venues, instead of three. Next year's show will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from June 6-8. In 2008, the event will return to Kuala Lumpur from June 24-26. APCS will no longer be held in Singapore.

"We see the new arrangement as allowing for the growth of APCS, as Bangkok has a strong international market and Kuala Lumpur is in the heart of Asia," Mr. Faux said.

Stand sales for the Asia Pacific Coatings Show 2007 in Bangkok are already beyond target at more than 35 percent capacity booked, according to the show's organizers.

"The exhibition went especially well for us as we had visitors from a variety of different regions which are of high value to our business," said Kerstin Ahne of Eckart. "We also liked the design of the exhibition hall and it is in our plans to come back next year."

"The record attendance and strong representation of all the major players at the Asia Pacific Coatings Show reaffirms the importance of the Asian region to the future of the global coatings industry," Mr. Faux said. "The Asia Pacific Coatings Show is building on its strengths and with confident economic growth and expanding paint production throughout the region, I believe this event will continue to reflect the industry's interest and activity in the area."

--Ink World Staff