- www.furnitureinchina.com/expo

SHANGHAI, July 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sourcing the best value from 3,000 exhibiting companies from all over the world, Furniture China 2012, as a grand furniture exhibition, will be held on 11 - 15 September in Shanghai, China. Starting this year, Furniture China becomes a five-day exhibition, which is one more day than before, in order to meet the buyers' demands. All varieties of furniture products and supplies will be displayed by category at three venues with a total exhibition space of 750,000 sq m. This includes home furniture, office furniture, kitchen & cabinets and furnishings at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) and JSWB global home furnishing centre; plus woodworking machinery and raw materials at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (SWEECC).

In its important role promoting the domestic and overseas furniture industries, Furniture China improves its quality every year and presents more innovative ideas. Three major highlights this year are pavilions, design and conferences.

Free online registration: http://www.furniture-china.cn/prereg/furniture12/fm_landing.asp?fair_id=149

Besides the key Chinese furniture enterprises, there will be around 170 overseas companies participating as exhibitors, including nine country pavilions: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgian, Indonesian, the Philippines, Malaysian and Singaporean. It is obvious to see that more and more overseas companies choose Furniture China as their most important and valuable platform for exploring not only the Chinese and Asian markets, but also over 100 countries of other continents.

Design is always a popular topic. For the furniture industry, how to make the furniture products more attractive and special but still comfortable and humanistic is the eternal pursuit of designers and manufacturers. During this year's exhibition, two locations are arranged mainly about design: Hall W5 (Design Hall) at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) and DoD (Design of Designers) at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (SWEECC). It is a great opportunity to discover many pieces of furniture created by talented designers and to join the forums and presentations on the relevant topics.

The other highlight requiring the most concern is the World Furniture Summit 2012, a pre-eminently important event held concurrently on 11 September at the Kerry Hotel Pudong. The summit is organised by the China National Furniture Association and the Shanghai UBM Sinoexpo Int'l Exhibition Co. Ltd, and co-organised by International Alliance Furniture Publications (IAFP). The topic centres on "The Impact & Outlook of the World Furniture Industry after the Global Financial Crisis" with the goal of facilitating an actual exchange of information among world furniture markets while aiming at strengthening relationships in the furniture industry in countries all over the world.

The World Furniture Summit 2012 will invite esteemed speakers including Mr. Zhu Changling – President of China National Furniture Association; Mr. Denis Heylen – President of European Furniture Retailers Association FENA ; Mr Todd Wanick – President & CEO of Ashley Furniture Industries Inc, Dr Lim Cheok Sin – Chairman of the Council of Asia Furniture Associations and Mr. Wang Depei, the famous Chinese economist, who will all share their views and participate in a friendly discussion of the topic. Furthermore, there will be 13 foreign association and media speakers from all of the world. The speakers from the well-developed furniture industry, including Germany, Japan, US, Spain, France and UK will have a roundtable discussion on the topic of Development Opportunities and Challenges after the Global Financial Crisis, in which they will share their thoughts and real cases with us. And the speakers from Australia, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Romania and Brazil, who come from the emerging markets in furniture industry, will address the individual presentation regards the current situation in their own countries' furniture market. The expert from CSIL will make the presentation as well on a topic concerning the world furniture outlook with implications at the global markets level.

With the steady improvement in the economy and living standards, Asia will become the long-term growth point for the global furniture market. Globalisation and the change of consumer behaviours are major contributors to the increased demand for luxury furniture in the emerging markets, such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. According to the China National Light Industry Information Centre, statistics show that the total output value of China's furniture industry in 2011 reached RMB1,010 billion (about US$154 billion), an increase of 25.28% compared to last year, with China's exports reaching US$38.882 billion, an increase of 15.31%, which accounts for 35.3% of the total global furniture trade.

All in all, the World Furniture Summit is an international industry event where ideas, insights and advice are gathered and shared in the world's furniture industry. It provides a perfect opportunity for those in related industries to build and expand their commercial ties and for this reason, it will be held regularly in the coming years at Furniture China.

For more information, please visit: www.furnitureinchina.com/expo

SOURCE UBM Sinoexpo