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Furniture fair does roaring trade
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Liu Fuzhong
THE Eighth International Furniture and Woodworking Machinery Fair, co-sponsored by the Shenzhen Municipal Furniture Industry Association and the International Furniture and Decoration (Hong Kong) Association, closes today, having attracted over 160,000 visitors.
Organizers say that over 2,000 international buyers are expected to award orders worth US$100 million to local furniture manufacturers at the fair. Over 200 local furniture manufacturers who have been actively involved in international trade participated in the exhibition.
Organizers also say that domestic sales are expected to top two billion yuan, or one third of the domestic total at the seven preceding shows.
According to organizers, the furniture fair attracted foreign buyers, designers and prospective investors from 18 countries and regions in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Mubarak Ali-Ali, owner of one of the largest furniture procurement companies in Kuwait, said that he now procures most of his furniture supplies from Shenzhen.
“I used to focus my procuring business in Italy, the United States and Southeast Asia. With the improved design and quality and competitive prices offered by local manufacturers, I am now happy to do business with my Shenzhen partners," he said.
Declining to reveal the exact amount of his purchase at the fair, Mubarak told reporters he bought a lot at the fair and Shenzhen is now his major source of procurement.
In order to show the top designs in the world, local manufactures also presented their foreign designers along with their latest designs. Bilgin Sonmez, from Germany, is general manager of Trend Concept, an international furniture design firm based in Germany. He walks visitors through his exhibition booths and explains to them the new concepts and latest designs of interior design.
Trend Concept is the partner of the local furniture firm Chateau Anne, which specializes in high-end furniture design and production. “I would like to show my local customers a new dimension of interior design, which incorporates personal and artistic feelings," he said.
Like Sonmez, Klaus Jansen from the German bedding technology firm Thomas Technique Innovation also plays the role of a product presenter. Yet he targets a different group of customers — local furniture manufacturers.
“My company licenses the bedding technology for production. We usually co-operate with European partners and supply the European market. But at this fair in Shenzhen, we hope to work more closely with local manufacturers who have comparable production capacity and competitive labour cost," he said.
Zeng Guohua, chairman of the Shenzhen Municipal Furniture Industry Association, attributed the popularity of local furniture in foreign countries to the collective efforts by local manufacturers to build local brands.
He said that the association has organized exhibition tours to all leading furniture shows in the world, presenting local products in the broad brand name of Shenzhen.
A recent furniture show in Singapore earned local manufacturers orders worth over US$30 million, he said.
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