The ACHEMA 2012 closed its doors on Friday, with numbers of exhibitors and visitors having remained stable. For five days, 167,000 participants found out about the ranges of the 3,773 exhibitors, which they presented on 136,400 m² of exhibition area.

From laboratory equipment to components, and plant-building to packaging lines, one could see products for chemistry, process technology and bio-technology requirements. For the first time, the exhibition group "Pumps, Compressors, Valves and Fittings" on its own comprised more than 1,000 exhibitors. In all fields, particular attention was devoted to the major themes of energy and bio-economics.

"We are especially happy that the new layout of the halls was so well-received," said Dr. Thomas Scheuring, CEO of DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH, at the end of the event. Hall 11, which was available for the first time, was very popular with exhibitors and visitors of the group "Instrumentation, Control and Automation Techniques". But "Laboratory and Analytical Techniques" and "Thermal and Mechanical Processes" also drew a strong flow of visitors. The group "Pharmaceutical, Packaging and Storage Techniques", which now occupied the whole of Hall 3, also benefited from the new layout. With a proportion of foreign exhibitors of almost 50%, coming from a total of 56 countries, the ACHEMA was also more international than ever before. "This shows that precisely in our strongly globalised industries ACHEMA is and will continue to be the leading event. Globalisation does not just mean Europeans and Americans going to Asia - increasingly, Asian exhibitors and visitors are coming to Europe," explained Scheuring. This was also evident in the exhibitor statistics: more than 200 Chinese and more than 150 Indian companies presented their ranges. But numerous European and US companies once again also used the opportunity to present their innovations at the exhibition, which takes place every three years.

The exhibitors showed that they were just as satisfied with the response. "The ACHEMA's influence is undiminished," said Dr. Michael Thiemann, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH and President of the ACHEMA Committee, at the interim press conference on Wednesday. Other exhibitors also made positive statements about the quantity and quality of the visitors. "It was a very successful show for us; considerably better than in 2009, even better than 2006 before the crisis happened. Our three booths attracted a high number of international and professional visitors, with an increasing number of customers from Asia," said Friedbert Klefenz, Bosch Packaging Technology, in summary. Karsten Just of Bartec Holding took a similar view: "More noticeable than the numbers is the fact that the quality of the visitors was very high." According to the results of the visitor survey, more than 83% of the visitors in turn judged the quality of the ACHEMA as "good" or "very good".

The congress, with 900 talks and numerous guest and partner events gave a look at the subjects that will be occupying the industry in the short and medium term future. The front runners among these included talks on energy generation and storage and on biomass processing. But series of talks on materials science, bionics and chemistry parks also met with a great response. "We made the right selection of focus topics," said Prof. Dr. Kurt Wagemann, Executive Director of DECHEMA e.V." The sustainable use of energy and raw materials is a central issue for the chemical industry that comes very close to the start of the value-added chain and thereby acts as a source of impetus for other industries."

The ACHEMA community is now looking to China, where the 9th AchemAsia will be taking place from 13th - 16th May 2013 in Beijing. Then, from the 15th June 2015 it will once again be time for the heart of the process industry to beat at the ACHEMA in Frankfurt for a week.

The detailed results of the visitor and exhibitor survey will be published in the next few weeks.

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