European Coatings Show cancelled on global travel restrictions

LONDON (ICIS)–The organisers of the European Coatings Show (ECS) have cancelled the in-person edition planned for September in Nuremberg, Germany, as potential participants could still face travel restrictions, they said on Monday.

The cancellation comes only three weeks after the in-person event had been announced, as the pandemic was getting under control in Germany and the wider EU as vaccinations gained pace.

The organiser said on 19 May that more than 500 exhibitors had already registered to take part in the trade show.

Organiser Vincentz Network and exhibitions hall NürnbergMesse said the next in-person event would take place on 28-30 March 2023.

The European Coatings Conference, which overlapped with the ECS, will still take place in a digital format on 13-14 September.

“At the moment, the positive outlook [in containing the pandemic] is not yet universal, which means international travel is being resumed more slowly than we would prefer,” said Alexander Mattausch, director for exhibitions at NürnbergMesse.

“But for the kind of ECS 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 a key raw material for the production of coatings, especially titanium dioxide (TiO2); use of coatings is intensive in many industrial sectors from automotive to construction.

TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS, VARIANTS
Many countries’ vaccination campaigns lag those in the major economies, and travel restrictions remain in place; the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that as long as vaccinations do not reach all countries, the pandemic could keep spreading.

Moreover, the spread of new coronavirus variants – namely the variant Delta, first identified in India – are causing fresh restrictions to travel within Europe as well.

Germany has been one of the countries to restrict entries from the UK, where Delta is gaining predominance, albeit at low levels of cases and with health authorities stating hospitalisations remain stable, a sign that vaccines would work against the variant.

The ECS’ in-person edition would have been the first major event to go ahead in the petrochemicals industry in Europe since the pandemic hit the region in March 2020.

The events and conferences industry has been battered by the pandemic on the back of travel restrictions.

The annual meeting of the wider European Petrochemicals Association (EPCA) will be held this year again virtually, the organisers said in May.

With more than 2,500 registered attendees in the 2019 edition, and thousands more attending on the sidelines, EPCA’s annual meeting is the largest petrochemicals networking event in Europe.

In the US, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) trade group has said its International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) will be held in October in San Antonio, Texas.

It is the largest networking event in the Americas for the petrochemicals industry; initially, AFPM was expecting 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 an interview with ICIS in 2020, EPCA’s CEO Caroline Ciuciu said a second year in a row without an in-person event would put a strain on the organisation’s finances, which depends largely on the fees paid by the annual event’s attendees.

With that prospect looming, ICIS will speak to Ciuciu this week; an interview will be published on Friday.

Front page picture: ECS in 2019, the last in-person edition before the pandemic. Source:  ECS