China On April 21, 2026, the International Rubber and Plastics Exhibition, officially inaugurated in the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Hongqiao), Shanghai. The four-day exhibition, which culminates on April 24, is based on the theme of transformation, collaboration, and sustainable development, with four main elements: circular economy, digitalization, innovative materials, and High-End Technology Made in China. It gives a platform of exchange and cooperation in the whole chain of the global rubber and plastics industry.
Hitting a Record Scale, the Entire Industry Chain Constructs a Steady Supply and Demand Platform
Plastics machinery gives equipment of both upstream raw materials and downstream products, and is the industrial mother machine of precision processing and molding of polymer materials. The exhibition was an exhibition of more than 3,800 advanced equipment, which encompassed all the types of equipment such as injection, extrusion, blow, auxiliary, and testing equipment. The major players in the plastics machinery market, Haitian, Chen Hsong, LKK, Bochuang, Yizumi, Haida, Fuqiangxin, Tairui, Huameida, Kingway, Huaye, Jingcheng and Yuesheng participated in the exhibition and displayed their new technologies and solutions. Xu Niansha, President of the China Machinery Industry Federation, visited the booths of the main backbone enterprises of the China Plastics Machinery Industry Association, much complimenting the innovative success of the plastics machinery industry and urging to continue innovating to create new chapters in the development of the industry.
Intelligent machinery was heavily on display, as AI+intelligent production was propelling the industry to greater productivity
The exhibition featured the strong incorporation of digitalization, intelligence and AI technologies into the traditional rubber and plastics equipment. Process integration was extensively applied with an in-depth application that greatly enhanced efficiency in production and precision to the product. Digitalization proved to be an effective way of lowering labor and time costs, energy savings, and minimizing the environmental impact on the production process, and thus, the intelligent manufacturing could serve the green practices. The AI technology enables rubber and plastic processing equipment to reach intelligent upgrades, which allows it to produce complex and high-performance products, as well as address the needs of flexible manufacturing.
The exhibition featured fully automated intelligent injection molding, extrusion and blow molding production lines, industrial IoT-enabled digital management systems, AI-powered real-time quality and energy control systems, micro-injection molding, collaborative robots and other innovative technology, which clearly illustrate the current trend in the jump between "automation" to "intelligence" in rubber and plastics technology.
With the theme of Empowering Advantages, Enhancing Value, Haitian International showed its complete lifecycle solutions on future manufacturing, considering three dimensions: equipment upgrades, digital upgrades and ecosystem upgrades. Haitian International presented the world with its new fifth-generation flagship models, the MA1600 V /570Ultra, at the exhibition and displayed multi-cavity insert solutions to the home appliance industry using the MA5/Ultra and demonstrated an all-inclusive leap in the response speed, precision control, energy efficiency, breadth of the process and intelligent services.
With technological innovation as its theme, Yizumi introduced its highlight solutions that included precision manufacturing, automotive lightweighting, and green packaging, and succeeded in integrating intelligent control and data-empowerment of the manufacturing location with its Yi+Platform intelligent manufacturing platform. Bochuang displayed its e-Family electric injection molding machine family, which appealed to local and foreign professionals in the new energy vehicle, high-speed packaging industries. During the first day of the event, Bochuang ordered 10 pallet-specific injection molding machines to Xinjiang Shengfa Plastics. Terui demonstrated its advanced innovations in the automotive, packaging, medical and digital technology, and presented its new innovation in automotive headlight injection molding, the ColorSure ™ in-mold spraying process, which offered a cleaner, more attractive look to intelligent vision system and high-gloss exterior parts of new energy vehicles.
The intelligent equipment has also greatly enhanced precision of production, minimized energy use, and relieved the pressure on profit on businesses that has become a major driver of cultivating new quality productivity in the rubber and plastics industry. At the same time, the Power of Plastics Forum and the Intelligent Plastic Mold Forum continued to investigate the topic of intelligent equipment and digital technologies, which facilitates the use of technologies and updates the industrial systems.
Modernizing Green Recycling Technologies: Circular Economy Moves to Perform High-Value Services
The major motifs of the exhibition were green transformation and the circular economy, where recycled plastics became a significant component of the supply chain in the industry. Mature equipment and technologies including film cleaning and recycling, bottle-to-bottle recycling, food-grade recycled granulation, and AI intelligent sorting were demonstrated in the recycling zone, fostering the high-value and large-scale use of recycled materials.
