138th Canton Fair opens with record number of participating companies

The 138th edition of the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opened in Guangzhou of south China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday, with both the number of participating companies and booths setting new records.

This fair will be divided into three phases, with each phase lasting for five days.

The first phase, running from Oct 15 to 19, focuses on advanced manufacturing, including electronic appliances and industrial equipment.

At 09:00 in the morning, purchasers from all over the world entered the venue to select new products, negotiate deals and take the pulse of the market.

According to the organizer, about 247,000 purchasers from 218 countries and regions have pre-registered for this fair, up 10 percent from the previous edition. Notably, the number of buyers from the European Union, the United States, and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative has shown significant growth.

A total of 74,600 booths are arranged for some 32,000 participating companies at this edition of Canton Fair. Among them, about 3,600 companies will be making their debut at the fair.

Over 10,000 participating companies are hi-tech firms, SMEs that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products or manufacturing champions for a certain sector, taking up 30 percent of the total exhibitors.

This fair set up a service robot zone, demonstrating leading embodied robots and robot dogs. The event will feature a dedicated zone for the smart healthcare industry for the first time to better showcase China's advanced products and technologies in the medical field.

138th Canton Fair opens with record number of participating companies

An explosion on Friday night at an industrial park 50 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires sparked a fire and released toxic fumes, leaving at least 22 people injured, local media reported.

The explosion, which occurred around 21:00 local time in the city of Ezeiza, shattered windows of buildings within a four-kilometer radius, then ignited a fire and produced dense, toxic smoke, according to the media outlet Clarin.

The fire reached a height of over 20 meters and burned for more than two hours.

Firefighters were dispatched to the scene following the blast. However, due to the intensity of the flames, they were unable to extinguish the fire directly; instead, they sprayed water on surrounding buildings to prevent the blaze from spreading further.

Gaston Granados, mayor of Ezeiza, said the fire had spread to several factories and was still not under control.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the fire began in the warehouse of an agrochemical company.

Industrial blast near Argentinian capital Buenos Aires injures 22