Stone Boosts Southeast Asia Trade Show
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam – More than 3,500 industry professionals came together here last month for a hard-surfaces event that featured Southeast Asia’s first stone show.
Buyers from 40 countries attended ASEAN Ceramics & ASEAN Stone 2024 on Dec. 11-13 at the Saigon Exhibition and Conference Center. The event, which added a stone sector this year, showed a 65% increase in attendance from the previous edition in Hanoi in November 2023.
Co-organized by MMI Asia Pte. with the Vietnam Building Ceramic Association (VIBCA), the trade show included country pavilions from Italy, Germany, China, India, Thailand and Vietnam. A total of 500 buyer-seller meetings occurred, connecting exhibitors with their potential buyers.
The exhibition featured international vendors from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
Stone-industry exhibitors included Confindustria Marmomacchine, Breton SpA, Fortune Stones, SIMEC SPA, Rithy Granite (Cambodia) Co. Ltd, The Square Stone, and Bao Lai Stone.
The event included by a world-class conference program featuring over 30 conference sessions and panel discussions focusing on solutions to the latest challenges faced by both ceramics and natural stone industry and the innovative strategies presented by industry leaders and experts.
The event began with an opening ceremony with Deputy Minister Mr. Nguyen Van Sinh from the Ministry of Construction in Vietnam,
“ASEAN Ceramics has once again proved that it is the number one meeting place in Southeast Asia for the ceramics industry,” said Michael Wilton, CEO and managing director of MMI Asia, the event’s producer. “ASEAN Ceramics has played its role, bringing these people together, and it enables the industry to innovate, collaborate, work together to further enhance the industry here in Southeast Asia.
“This edition is also special because we introduce a new segment, ASEAN Stone. ASEAN Stone is again bringing together the stone manufacturers, the stone producers, the quarries to further the technology, the advancement, the understanding of the industry here in Southeast Asia.”
Plans for ASEAN Ceramics 2025 are already in progress for the next edition, set for Oct, 15-17 at Hall 5, IMPACT Exhibition & Convention Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.
ASEAN Stone will return on at yet-to-be-determined date in 2026 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Singapore-based MMI Asia is the wholly owned subsidiary and the regional headquarters of Messe München GMBH (MMG). Parent company Messe München presents 90 trade fairs worldwide, including bauma, BAU, IFAT, electronica, and ISPO. Together with its subsidiaries, it organizes trade fairs in Brazil, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam.
VIBCA is a professional non-governmental voluntary group established in 1999. Currently, it includes around 100 members operating mainly in the field of building ceramics. VIBCA is a member of the Association of Asean Ceramics Industry CICA.
