NPE2024: The Plastics Show announced its final registration and paid exhibit space results, totaling 51,396 registrants and 1,106,767 square feet, respectively. Held from May 6-10 in Orlando, Florida, NPE2024 saw a record-breaking number of international attendees, first-time attendees, and paid exhibit space.

“NPE2024 was truly a momentous event in plastics industry history,” said Matt Seaholm, PLASTICS’ Chief Executive Officer, “With an outstanding international turnout, NPE2024 is re-established as a global hub for the plastics industry, welcoming professionals and innovators from around the world. As we look ahead to our next show in 2027, we’re seeing incredible potential for more industry-shaping collaboration to establish a new standard for circularity and ground-breaking plastic applications.”

Additional NPE2024 numbers include:

• 15,156 international registrants from 133 countries, establishing NPE2024 as the most global show in the event’s history.
• 36,123 domestic registrants, 70% of all registrants (this does not include 0.23% who did not respond).
• 20,378 first-time attendees, a nearly 9% increase over NPE2018.

With the outstanding number of NPE2024 international registrations, the results also revealed a significant growth in attendance across different regions, including:

• 4,438 Latin American (LATAM) registrants, 29.3% of international registration and a 9.9% increase of LATAM registrations compared to NPE2018. Significant registration increases were seen in Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala.
• There were 2,801 European registrants, 18.5% of international registrations, and a 23% increase of European registrations over NPE2018, with the largest registration increase from Italy.

“This growing presence of European and LATAM registrants is indicative of the respective countries’ impact on the plastics industry,” said Dr. Perc Pineda, PLASTICS’ Chief Economist. “As the US is the second largest importer of plastics machinery, accounting for 12% of global imports, European countries make up six of the top ten countries supplying the US in 2023, totaling $1.6 billion. Similarly, over the past five years, US exports of plastics machinery to Latin America have also grown by 6.5% annually, supporting the region’s expanding plastics industry.”

In addition to the attendance results, NPE2024 marked the largest show in history with the following exhibit space statistics:

• 1,106,767 total paid exhibit space, designating an additional 10,581 square feet over NPE2018
• 2,202 exhibitors, a 10.3% increase over NPE2018.

NPE2027 is set to return to Orlando from May 3-7, 2027.