[After 14 years, SIAF has been given a new name, SPS - Smart Production Solutions Guangzhou, and those responsible are delighted with the positive feedback. With the renaming, the fair has been given a brand upgrade and will now be better integrated into the international network of the SPS - Smart Production Solutions brand. This initiative is in line with the ambitions of South China's manufacturing sector, which is working towards a new industrialization and smart transformation of its industries, according to Messe Frankfurt (HK).

Richard Li, Chairman and CEO of Guangzhou Guangya Messe Frankfurt Co Ltd, said of the innovations: "Since the brand upgrade, additional resources have been poured into the fair, which has significantly increased its global presence. The increased participation of industry leaders and smart manufacturing experts as well as buyers and visitors from around the world shows that our rebranding efforts are going in the right direction. It also ensures that our event is more closely aligned with SPS in Germany and can fully benefit from the shared resources and complementary strengths of the brand's global network."

This year, the Guangzhou Industrial Technology Exhibition and Asiamold Select took place alongside SPS. The trade fair trio attracted a total of 37,264 trade visitors with 78,111 visits.

Now that it is not allowed to do business with Russia in Europe, the country is looking in other directions. This can also be seen in the visitor analyses. A total of 909 visitors from 83 countries came to Guangzhou. Sorted by region and in descending order of visitor numbers, they came from Russia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Belarus, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Turkey, the USA and Australia.

The next SPS stop is Italy. SPS Italia will take place from May 28 to 30 in Parma, from September 9 to 14 the trade fair will stop in Chicago as part of the IMTS exhibition and from November 12 to 14 SPS will open its doors in Nuremberg.