(Yicai) Sept. 20 -- More than 2,600 exhibitors from 27 countries and regions are attending the 23rd China International Industry Fair, a new record high.

The five-day CIIF, which kicked off in Shanghai yesterday, has an exhibition area of 300,000 square meters, almost 30 percent of which was occupied by booths of overseas brands, all new records, according to Donghao Lansheng Group, the event's organizer, setting record high on the scale and new exhibits.

The 23rd CIIF is an industrial gathering happening after three years of preparation, Zhou Jin, Donghao Lansheng's vice president, told Yicai. The 22nd CIIF was held in 2020.

Some international exhibitors and exhibits could not arrive in Shanghai in 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19, Zhou said. But international exhibitors' participation level has returned to pre-pandemic level this year, she added.

"Some leading manufacturing firms came to our booth to ask about cooperation," the person in charge of the booth of Delta Technology, a Chinese power management and heat dissipation solution provider, told Yicai yesterday.

The pavilion where Delta's booth is located is a part of the CIIF's core exhibition area, mainly presenting robots, industrial automation, and new-generation information technologies. It covers an area of over 130,000 sqm, larger than the same pavilions at this year's Hannover Messe.

The over 50,000-sqm robot section is the world's biggest exhibition platform for suppliers across the supply chain, with most participants from the industrial robot field. Famous international brands such as ABB Robotics, Fanuc, Kuka, and Yaskawa attended the fair. Domestic robot makers like Estun Automation and Step brought new techs and products.

Swiss multinational ABB unveiled all-series innovative robots at the CIIF yesterday. Last December, it announced its super robot factory in Shanghai covering 67,000 sqm started operation.

In the pavilion for innovative techs, high-end manufacturing and green energy are key themes this year. Among the 50 exhibits, there is the transport system for the 600-kilometer-per-hour high-speed maglev train of China’s CRRC Qingdao Sifang.

Kuberd Chemicals hopes to find more customers, as finding clients is a headache on normal days, given that the material it developed mainly targets niche and extreme industrial scenarios, Song Zhenjian, marketing director at the Shanghai-based startup, a first-time CIIF participant, told Yicai.

Editor: Futura Costaglione