Exclusive: Voices of drupa 2024 – RX Global

In conversation with Tate Dai, Senior International Marketing Executive, RX Global

Give me a brief roundup of your company?

Our company started in 2001 from SinoCorrugated and after these 20-odd years it has become the biggest in corrugated show in the whole world. But we started to make a difference compared to other shows, and decided to cover the entire packaging industry. In around 2006, we had the SinoFoldingCarton which focused on the printing and folding carton industry. In 2016, we cooperated with a local Chinese packaging Federation innovation and in 2023 we along with the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) had the WEPACK series which focuses on the whole packaging industry from raw materials, packaging, the converting equipment, and then to the end users. So we have actually succeeded in the past few years. Our events in Shenzhen and Shanghai were very good. Our markets are still very strong in South-East Asia and part of maybe South America. But regarding the Middle East and Europe, we got other team in RX German & Turkey to cover it.

What about your exhibitions?

Regarding RX China, actually we got WEPACK series show in China mainland and WEPACK ASEAN in Malaysia. In Turkey, RX Turkey launched the Eurasia Packaging Fair in Istanbul. ICE & CCE is launched by RX German so far. Before the pandemic, every year we used to launch four to five road shows all over the world, like in Iran. We also launched in Egypt once, and also America many times and Europe, especially Germany.

In your exhibition like the SinoCorrugated, you get manufacturers from outside the region, like from the US?

To be honest, international exhibitors make up around 20% of the total, while the rest are from China and other South-East Asian countries. Compare to the times before the pandemic issue, it has been declined a lot. We want to promote non-Chinese exhibitors and be international, because I have talked to several clients who are international manufacturers who feel that the word “Sino” refers to China, but after these 20 years development, we have already become an international mega show in packaging industry.

How many visitors did you have in the last SinoCorrugated?

We had a total of 1,00,000 visitors. Since WEPACK can cover the whole packaging industry chain, we had paper traders, the converting manufacturers, box plan and also the end users. Like we have packaging containers in PackCon, companies like McDonald’s and P&G came to check the packaging containers they are interested.

Do you get the support of any association?

For WEPACK we have the support of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO). Regarding the corrugated we are super strong relationship like the Asian Corrugated Case Association (ACCA) & FCBM (The Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers of India). We are also the member of FEFCO, the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers. In the printing sector we get some support from India’s Offset Printers’ Association (OPA) and others from like Argentina and South-east Asia. Generally we had cooperation with 50+ international associations all over the world.

What about the Middle East?

We have decided that for the next five years, our focus will be on the Middle East, primarily the UAE and Saudi Arabia. I feel Saudi Arabia and North Africa is the best potential market.