According to estimates made by the organizer Deutsche Messe, visitor numbers at this year’s Ligna 2015 in Hannover increased to roughly 96,000, representing 7% more than those at the 2013 event. With approximately 40,000 visitors from abroad, the proportion of foreign visitors increased by roughly 2% to almost 42%. Most foreign visitors came from Austria, France, Italy, the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, China and Brazil. The proportion of trade visitors also apparently rose by 2% compared with 2013 figures, to 96%. Deutsche Messe reports that the number of participants from Asia, at 4,700, increased over-proportionally by roughly 68%. Similar strong growth in numbers was shown by visitors from South and Central America, at 68%.
Deutsche Messe and the Wood Processing Machines Trade Association within VDMA (German Machine and Plant Construction Association) have announced a new layout concept for the next staging of Ligna from 22 to 26 May 2017. The three previously spatially separate sections “Solid Wood Processing”, “Furniture Industry” and “Crafts”, which until now dealt with final processing, will be merged in the newly created main product-range section “Tools, Machines and Plant for Custom and Series Production”.
Exhibitors focusing on “Solid Wood Processing” will in the future enjoy priority to be located in Hall 27, as a result of which suppliers will be moved closer to the “Sawmill Technology” section in Hall 25. The associated section “Wood Construction” in Hall 13 will also then be situated in the immediate vicinity. The organizers expect this change to generate synergies between the sections “Surface Processing” in Hall 17 and “Wood Based Panels” in Hall 26. With its own focus in Hall 16, Automation Engineering is to be given greater weight in future.