Canton Fair goes smart

At this year’s Canton Fair, the busiest aisles are increasingly the ones with robots, drones, and connected home devices, not just bulk consumer goods. (news.cgtn.com) The 139th China Import and Export Fair opened in Guangzhou on April 15 and runs through May 5 across the Pazhou complex. China’s Ministry of Commerce said the event covers 1.55 million square meters, includes 75,700 booths, and has more than 32,000 exhibitors. (english.www.gov.cn) The fair is split into three phases by product category, with electronics, machinery, vehicles, hardware, and appliances in Phase 1; housewares, gifts, building materials, and furniture in Phase 2; and fashion, home textiles, stationery, and health products in Phase 3. The official fair schedule lists those phases as April 15-19, April 23-27, and May 1-5. (cantonfair.org.cn) What changed this spring is the floor plan. Organizers added nine new product zones, including first-time sections for consumer drones and agricultural drones, alongside zones for smart wearables, display technology, and service robots. (prnewswire.com) That shift tracks a broader export push toward higher-value products. The Ministry of Commerce said the number of exhibition zones rose to 179, and officials described the fair as a gauge of China’s foreign trade as exporters move beyond basic manufacturing. (english.www.gov.cn) Service robots have become a visible test case. CGTN reported that the robot section returned for a second year with 46 companies, and buyers interviewed there said they were looking for machines they could deploy quickly in businesses ranging from senior care to sports retail. (news.cgtn.com) The smart-device pitch is less about novelty than labor and cost. A Brazilian buyer told CGTN that high employee costs at home made robots attractive, while a robotics executive said his company was seeing customers from the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia and expected exports to multiply this year. (news.cgtn.com) Organizers are also betting that international demand will hold up. The Ministry of Commerce said about 290 leading purchasing enterprises had confirmed attendance by April 10, up 30% from a year earlier, and the list included Walmart, Tesco, and Carrefour. (english.www.gov.cn) The fair itself has the scale to make those shifts visible fast. First held in 1957 and staged twice a year in Guangzhou, the Canton Fair has long been used by buyers to see what Chinese factories are ready to ship next. (english.www.gov.cn) This session’s message is coming through in hardware. The booths drawing the most attention are the ones selling automation, sensors, software, and machines that promise to do more than a single cheap task. (news.cgtn.com)