Preparations underway for 140th Canton Fair

Preparations for the 140th China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, are progressing smoothly.

The trade event is scheduled to be held in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province from October 15 to November 4.

The fair will have an exhibition area of 1.55 million square meters and feature 75,700 booths in 54 specialized zones. It will be staged in three distinct phases, each focusing on different product categories themed on “advanced manufacturing”, “quality home life” and “better life.”

“Preparations for the fair are going smoothly and booth applications for the export exhibition have been completed. Service robots, smart healthcare solutions, consumer drones, wearable devices, and prefabricated housing, and other cutting-edge products representing new quality productive forces will make their debut,” said Ding Shuang, deputy head of the Canton Fair’s business office.

Established in 1957, the Canton Fair is held twice a year in Guangzhou. It is the longest-running of several comprehensive international trade events in China, and has been hailed as the barometer of China’s foreign trade.

The head of German auto giant Mercedes-Benz has stressed the automaker is looking to navigate through the current challenges facing the auto sector by investing in innovation, technology and new products, with the firm introducing a wave of new vehicle models.

Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, was speaking in an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN), during which he acknowledged that intense competition amid a complex environment is squeezing profit margins, particularly in key markets such as China.

Kallenius listed several external pressures facing the company which come amid the wider changes taking place across the industry, and said automakers will simply have to adapt in order to remain competitive.

“I don’t think that the intense competitive situation in China is going to go away any time soon, so there will be pressure here. Of course, the tariff system, especially for a global company like Mercedes-Benz, it has changed and we have to accept that now. And there are also other regulatory challenges or other things that’s going on in the world,” he said.

Kallenius said that while making efforts to manage disruptions in the short-term, the Mercedes-Benz Group is investing more in innovation, technology and products.

He noted that as part of this strategy the firm is unveiling 40 new models in the three-year period up to 2027 as it looks to build momentum to overcome the present difficulties.

“I think that 2026 for us is a year of execution, actually bringing models into the pipeline [and we aim to] build upon that in 2027 and 2028. So we take for this financial picture, we take like a mid-term view,” he said.

“We have a solid foundation. Yes, it is a tougher business environment than it was maybe three years ago. But we can deal with it and we want to build ourselves into a stronger position over the next years into the mid-term carried by the product offensive,” Kallenius said.