The first combined ITMA ASIA + CITME exhibition has drawn enthusiastic response from the world’s leading textile machinery makers. Applications for booth space have been streaming in as the deadline draws near.

Miss Maria Avery, Secretary-General of CEMATEX, The European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, reported, “Our national associations have been receiving exceptionally good response from their members, who are all very supportive of our launch event in China. It is a very important market for them and they are enthusiastic about the country’s potential."

"Hence, they are concentrating all their marketing efforts into this one show and we are receiving applications for very large booths. This augurs well for the event, and we believe we shall sell out the remaining space very quickly.”

Chinese textile machinery manufacturers are also making their presence felt in a big way at the first combined show. Mr Wang Shutian, Vice President and General Secretary of the China Textile Machinery Association commented, “We are very excited to kick-off the combined show in Shanghai, and all the major Chinese manufacturers will be participating in this groundbreaking exhibition. It will be the most successful international textile machinery exhibition China has ever hosted.”

Most of the leading industry names from the world’s major textile machinery manufacturing hubs have already signed up for the exhibition, boosted by the positive demand for modern equipment from Chinese and other Asian textile makers.

Till now, China’s textile industry has surpassed one-third of the entire world textile production capacity. According to the China Textile Machinery Association, the value of imported textile machinery surpassed US$4 billion in 2006 ? an increase of 19 percent over the previous year’s total.

In view of these buoyant market opportunities, textile machinery manufacturers are leveraging on the established branding of ITMA, ITMA ASIA and CITME to market their latest products. A quality showcase of cutting-edge solutions and live machinery demonstrations, the combined show features strict admission criteria that allows the participation of only bona fide manufacturers.

To be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre from 27 to 31 July 2008, the exhibition is expected to span 100,000 square metres. It is projected to attract over 1,000 Chinese and international exhibitors, and about 100,000 trade visitors.

ITMA ASIA + CITME 2008 has received unprecedented support from the world’s major textile machinery associations. These include:

- American Textile Machinery Association (ATMA)
- China Textile Machinery Association (CTMA)
- CEMATEX, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, which comprises ACIMIT (Italy), AMTEX (Spain), BTMA (UK), GTM (Netherlands), Swissmem (Switzerland), Symatex (Belgium), TMAS (Sweden), UCMTF (France) and VDMA (Germany)
- Japan Textile Machinery Association (JTMA)
- Korea Textile Machinery Association (KOTMA)
- Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI)

These associations have also pledged that the combined show will be the only exhibition in China that they will fully support in the future, according to the show owners, CEMATEX (the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers), CTMA (China Textile Machinery Association), CCPIT-Tex (the Sub Council of Textile Industry, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade) and CIEC (China Exhibition Centre Group Corporation).