(Yicai Global) Nov. 4 -- A record number of overseas companies are taking part in this year’s Fourth China International Import Expo, which opened its doors today and will run until Nov. 10. Some are here for the first time, others have taken part in all four expos to date. All are seeking to leverage the world’s top platform for promoting foreign products to the domestic market to bring their latest products, technologies and services to China.

“We attach great importance to the opportunities brought by the CIIE,” Shane Tedjarati, president of Honeywell’s global high growth regions, told Yicai Global. The US conglomerate has taken part in all four expos since they started in 2018. This year it has tripled its booth area. Taking pride of place is a flight simulator in which visitors can try landing a plane and taxiing on the runway.

This year’s business section is larger and better structured, with a higher quality of exhibitors, Sun Chenghai, vice director of the CIIE bureau, said earlier. Almost 3,000 companies from 127 countries and regions across five continents are participating. The total exhibition area has been expanded to 366,000 square meters.

Domestic buyers are lining up to attend the event. Some 39 trade groups and 600 sub-groups are expected to visit for procurement purposes.

“The CIIE is the most important platform for German cleaning specialist Karcher to develop in China,” said Tang Xiaodong, president of Karcher China. The Winnenden-based firm has quadrupled its display area to 800 sqm from its first participation four years’ ago. The investment appears to be paying off as its China sales jumped 40 percent last year from the year before to CNY3 billion (USD468.9 million).

German forklift maker Jungheinrich is also back for the fourth time. Since it started to take part in the expo its market share has soared in China. After displaying its narrow-aisle forklift truck at the CIIE, Jungheinrich is supplying almost one in every two forklift orders in the country, said Bao Wenyan, marketing director of Jungheinrich Asia-Pacific.

“Boehringer Ingelheim firmly believes in the Chinese market and is excited about Shanghai’s new strategic plan to boost the biomedical industry,” said Felix Gutsche, president and chief executive officer of the German pharma firm’s China division. Here for the third time, the Ingelheim am Rhein-based company is debuting four new products and solutions.

Kose is taking part for the first time. With a 500-square-meter booth, the Japanese cosmetics firm is determined not to be overlooked by visitors.

“We saw that the booths of other international brands were very large when we visited the CIIE last year. We shall not lag behind,” Shinohara Kazuyuki, general manager of Kose China, told Yicai Global. Tokyo-based Kose will also use the CIIE to promote its products to the whole world through livestreaming and other means.

Hong Kong’s Citychamp Watch and Jewellery Group is also attending for the first time. It hopes by displaying at the expo to greatly increase sales of its Ernest Borel and Kunlun brands on the mainland, said Wen Dishi, assistant to the executive director of the company.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor