LONDON (ICIS) – The organizers of the European Coatings Show (ECS) have canceled the personal edition scheduled for September in Nuremberg, Germany, as potential attendees may still face travel restrictions, they said on Monday.
The cancellation takes place only three weeks after the personal appointment The event was announced, as the pandemic in Germany and across the EU came under control as vaccinations picked up pace.
More than 500 exhibitors have already registered, the organizer announced on May 19.
The organizer Vincentz Network and the exhibition hall NürnbergMesse announced that the next personal event will take place from March 28th to 30th, 2023.
The European Coatings Conference, which overlaps with the ECS, will take place from 13.-14. September will continue to be held in digital form.
“At the moment the prospects are positive [in
containing the pandemic] is not yet nationwide, so international travel will be resumed more slowly than we would like, ”says Alexander Mattausch, Exhibition Manager at NürnbergMesse.
“But for the type of ECS that we know and appreciate – a global industry gathering of exhibitors and visitors from more than 120 countries – a faster resumption would be essential.”
Petrochemicals are an important raw material for the manufacture of coatings, especially titanium dioxide (TiO2); The use of coatings is intense in many industries from automotive to construction.
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS, VARIANTS
Vaccination campaigns in many countries are lagging behind those in major economies and travel restrictions remain in place; The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the pandemic could spread further until vaccinations reach all countries.
In addition, the spread of new coronavirus variants – namely the Delta variant identified for the first time in India – is also leading to new travel restrictions within Europe.
Germany was one of the countries that restricted entry from the UK, where Delta is gaining dominance, albeit with low case numbers, and health officials say hospital admissions remain stable, a sign that vaccines against the variant would work.
The personal edition of the ECS would have been the first major event in the petrochemical industry in Europe since the March 2020 pandemic in the region.
The event and conference industry has been hit by the pandemic due to travel restrictions.
According to the organizers, the annual meeting of the broader European Petrochemicals Association (EPCA) will again take place virtually this year said in May.
With more than 2,500 registered participants in the 2019 edition and thousands of other participants on the sidelines, the EPCA annual meeting is the largest petrochemical networking event in Europe.
In the United States, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) trading group announced that its International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) held in October in San Antonio, Texas.
It is the largest networking event in America for the petrochemical industry; AFPM originally expected to hold the 2021 edition in March, but the realities of the pandemic forced two postponements. first from March to May and then from May to October.
In one (n Interview with ICIS In 2020, EPCA CEO Caroline Ciuciu said that a second straight year without a face-to-face event would put a strain on the organization’s finances, largely depending on the fees paid by attendees to the annual event.
With that prospect looming, ICIS will speak to Ciuciu this week; an interview will be published on Friday.
Cover picture: ECS in 2019, the last personal edition before the pandemic. Source: ECS
