Shanghai-based post-press kit manufacturer PrintYoung Machinery (17/F911) exhibited for the first time this year and said it had already sold two of the three folder-gluers off its stand - one to a UK printer.

"Europe has been very slow to recover from the economic crisis. At the same time we are improving the build quality of our machines exponentially. The Chinese print market is only 10 years old compared to that of Germany," said Caren He, general manager at PrintYoung Machinery.

She added: "Because of the financial crisis and the issues relating to the availability of finance, a lot of customers in Europe are looking for cheaper machines, so we saw it as the chance to grab a foothold into this market."

Shanghai-based Hua Jiao (6/ B517) also exhibited for the first time this year and said that, based on the number of leads it has generated for its range of consumables,

that it plans to come back in 2014. The supplier is trying to find a UK representative. "Shows like Ipex help us become more popular," said Huajiao Guo, director at Hua Jiao.

Another debutant, die-cutting kit manufacturer UP Group (6/ B546) also reported a lot of interest in Chinese equipment and sold one of its foil-stamping and die-cutting machines to a UK-based printer at Ipex. The deal, which had been initiated prior to the opening of the show, was finally signed off at the exhibition.

"The quality of machines may still not be perceived to be as good as the European machines, but when you see the amount of visitors on our stand you can tell that those opinions are changing, especially when you look at Chinese machines on offer this year," said Jammy Cheng, salesman at UP Group. The supplier intends to exhibit at the next Ipex and said it hoped to double its stand size.

Six out of the seven Chinese exhibitors IpexDaily spoke to said that they already had plans to exhibit at the 2014 show. At Ipex 2006, there were 26 Chinese suppliers across the halls, compared with 71 at the NEC in 2010.