About R+T Asia

R+T Asia

R+T Asia is the Asia-Pacific edition of R+T, the world's leading trade fair for roller shutters, doors, gates and sun-protection systems, and the leading show of its kind in Asia. Launched in Shanghai in 2005, it is held annually in China and co-organised by Messe Stuttgart, the organiser of the parent R+T fair in Germany, and VNU Exhibitions Asia, now known as GLOBUS Events or Globus Events Limited. Its official website is en.rtasia.net. In recent years the show has been held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, known as NECC, in Shanghai, after earlier editions at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. For two decades, R+T Asia has served manufacturers, distributors, architects, builders and buyers working with sun shading, roller shutters, doors and gates across the Asia-Pacific region.

The 20th anniversary edition in 2025, held from 26 to 28 May at NECC, illustrates the show's present standing. It coincided with the global R+T brand's 60th year, was described by its organisers as its largest edition to date, and hosted around 750 brands. Roland Bleinroth, President of Messe Stuttgart and a co-organiser of the show, described the milestone as marking the growth of R+T Asia from a focused event in 2005 to the most influential industry platform in the Asia-Pacific region. David Zhong, Founder and President of Globus Events Limited, linked that growth to two decades of robust expansion fuelled by Asia's dynamic trade.

The R+T Brand: From Stuttgart in 1965 to a Global Alliance

To understand R+T Asia, it helps to understand R+T itself. The parent fair was founded in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1965, a founding date confirmed in event histories that describe R+T as becoming, since its establishment that year, the most prominent international trade fair for roller shutters, doors, gates and sun-shading systems. Held in Stuttgart once every three years, R+T presents itself as the world's leading trade fair for its sector, a meeting point for the industry, a trend barometer and an innovation platform. Its scale in Germany is substantial: coverage of the 2018 edition noted that in 2015, 888 exhibitors presented their products and services to 59,057 visitors from 131 countries, and previews of the 2027 edition, scheduled for 15 to 19 February 2027 at Messe Stuttgart, anticipate more than 61,000 participants from close to 150 countries and regions across 120,000 square metres.

From that triennial Stuttgart base, the brand expanded internationally through subsidiary trade fairs and what is now called the R+T Alliance. Messe Stuttgart materials from the 2010s already listed successful subsidiary fairs in Shanghai and Istanbul and a first edition in São Paulo in 2016. The Shanghai subsidiary, R+T Asia, became the alliance's annual Asian anchor, while the Stuttgart fair retained its three-year cycle, a rhythm interrupted by the pandemic when the edition planned for February 2022 was postponed to February 2024 after a risk evaluation with exhibitors and partners concluded that broad international participation was not realistic under travel restrictions. R+T Asia's organisers explicitly invoke that alliance network, noting that it gives industry professionals access to a vast and reliable international network of partners and related shows, including editions in Istanbul, Orlando and Stuttgart.

Launch in Shanghai in 2005 and the Organisers

R+T Asia was launched in Shanghai in 2005. The date is central to the show's identity: the 2025 edition was celebrated as its 20th anniversary, and the 2024 edition was presented as its 19th, a sequence consistent with an annual show founded in 2005. The organisers are Messe Stuttgart, formally Landesmesse Stuttgart, which owns and organises the parent R+T, and the Shanghai-based exhibition company originally known as VNU Exhibitions Asia, later presented as GLOBUS Events and Globus Events Limited. Statements around the 2025 edition were issued jointly in those names, with Roland Bleinroth speaking for Messe Stuttgart as co-organiser and David Zhong, identified as Founder and President of Globus Events Limited, speaking for the Asian partner.

That German-Chinese organising partnership mirrors the show's commercial purpose. Messe Stuttgart brings the R+T brand, its international exhibitor relationships and its pavilion networks, including a German Pavilion documented at the 2024 edition. The Shanghai partner brings local market access, Chinese exhibitor recruitment and integration with China's wider building exhibitions, above all the BUILD ASIA mega-show described below. Together they position R+T Asia, in their own description, as the leading trade show in Asia for the sun shading and door and gate industry, and a vital platform for professionals to showcase innovations, connect with peers and explore new business opportunities.

Venues in Shanghai: SNIEC and the National Exhibition and Convention Center

R+T Asia has always been a Shanghai show, but like many growing Chinese trade fairs it has changed venues as it has expanded. Earlier editions were held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, known as SNIEC, in Pudong, the venue named in descriptions of the show's earlier history. In recent years the show has moved to the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Hongqiao, in western Shanghai, one of the world's largest exhibition complexes. The 2023 edition, held from 26 to 28 July that year, took place at NECC as part of the wider BUILD ASIA co-location. The 2024 edition ran from 28 to 30 May at NECC, and the 20th anniversary edition in 2025 ran from 26 to 28 May at the same venue.

The venue move matters because R+T Asia no longer stands alone. At NECC it sits alongside the other BUILD ASIA exhibitions in a single complex, allowing a visitor interested in flooring, home decoration, architecture and design, building industrialisation or interior prefabrication to move between shows. The co-location model depends on a venue large enough to hold several major trade fairs simultaneously, and NECC provides that capacity in a way that shaped the show's recent format, including its very large combined exhibition areas reported for the co-located events.

Scale and Editions: From Record 2019 to the 2025 Anniversary

The documented figures for R+T Asia show a show that grew steadily to a pre-pandemic record, was interrupted by China's closed-border period, and then returned with record visitor numbers. The 15th edition in 2019 set records with 642 exhibitors from 21 countries, 41,505 visitors and 65,000 square metres of exhibition space. An earlier data point gives a sense of the trajectory: trade coverage anticipating the 2018 edition expected more than 520 exhibitors and more than 30,000 professional visitors in Shanghai, itself a substantial increase on the show's earlier years.

The 18th edition in 2023, the first full international edition after a three-year halt caused by closed borders, concluded with what organisers described as a historic record of visitation and high international participation. Total visitors from 98 countries, including China, reached 50,881, the highest attendance since the show's inception, and 11,506 of those visitors came from overseas, reaching 90 percent of the international visitation recorded in the strong 2019 edition despite visa processing delays and flight route adjustments. Bernhard Mueller, a Vice President of Landesmesse Stuttgart, the co-organising company, said the 2023 show exceeded all expectations and that the international R+T family had come together again after three years. The 20th anniversary edition in 2025 then hosted around 750 brands and was described by the organisers as the largest edition to date, a claim consistent with the progression from 642 exhibitors in 2019 through the post-pandemic recovery.

What Is Exhibited: Sun Shading, Roller Shutters, Doors and Gates

R+T Asia's exhibit range is defined by the R+T brand's core sectors: roller shutters, doors and gates, and sun-protection or sun-shading systems. Event descriptions define it precisely as an international trade fair for sun shading systems and doors and gates. Within those sectors, documented exhibitor categories span sun-shading textiles, interior and exterior sun protection, roller shutter systems and components, door and gate automation, windows in the show's earlier broader presentation, and smart-home integration. Coverage of the parent Stuttgart fair lists related award and exhibition categories including electrical security equipment, interior sun protection, roller shutters and doors, indicating the technical breadth that the brand carries into its Asian edition.

The exhibitor base is international as well as Chinese. Preview coverage of the 2024 edition described prominent Chinese exhibitors alongside leading international players from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Turkey, and listed companies in the German Pavilion including C4MICE, Junkers and Müllers, Gerhard Geiger, Bahama and Georg Musculus among others. That mix is the show's commercial logic: Asian manufacturers, above all Chinese producers of shading fabrics, motors, controls and door systems, meet European and other international brands and buyers in a single marketplace, while overseas companies gain structured access to China's dynamic market for sun shading, doors and gates, a market the organisers repeatedly describe, together with neighbouring Asian countries, as offering great business opportunities.

BUILD ASIA: Co-location With DOMOTEX asia, HD+ Asia and cadex

A defining feature of the modern R+T Asia is its place inside BUILD ASIA, described by its organisers as a mega-show and a vibrant ecosystem representing the diverse facets of construction, building materials and interior design. R+T Asia is a core component of BUILD ASIA alongside DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR, HD+ Asia and cadex, with the 2025 line-up also naming the BIC International Building Industrialization of Construction Exhibition Asia and the IPD International Interior Prefabricated Decoration Exhibition Asia. DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR, the leading flooring exhibition in Asia-Pacific, illustrates the scale of the combined platform: its 2023 edition welcomed more than 1,600 companies and brands from over 30 countries across 200,000 square metres in seven halls and drew 83,594 visitors, the highest in that show's history, with more than 14,000 international visitors from over 110 countries.

Organisers present BUILD ASIA as a platform fostering cross-industry communication and multi-channel integration, on the reasoning that a building project specifies flooring, shading, doors, decoration and prefabricated interiors together. For R+T Asia exhibitors, co-location expands the potential audience beyond shading and door specialists to architects, interior designers, developers and contractors attending the neighbouring shows. For visitors, it allows a single trip to Shanghai to cover much of the building envelope and interior fit-out supply chain. R+T Asia's own descriptions consistently list its BUILD ASIA membership alongside its sector leadership, treating the mega-show as part of its identity rather than a scheduling coincidence.

Programme: IWDS Summit, InnovAction and the Hosted Buyer Programme

Beyond the exhibition floor, R+T Asia runs a documented programme of conferences, innovation features and buyer services. Its flagship networking and educational event is the International Window and Door Summit, known as IWDS. In 2024 the summit returned under the theme Innovating Towards Sustainable Futures: Advancing Global Low-Carbon Development in Sun Shading Systems and Doors/Gates, placing sustainability and low-carbon development at the centre of the industry discussion. The show also operates an InnovAction hub and award, intended to spotlight innovative products, a feature listed among its documented programme elements.

Buyer services are equally prominent. The show runs a Hosted Buyer Programme, also presented in 2025 as a Buyer Club, run with industry associations. In 2023 the programme brought more than 50 visiting buyers on tailor-made booth tours aligned with their product group interests, and a newly established partnership with ACMI, the Italian association of manufacturers of doors and shutters for residential and industrial applications, introduced its members to exhibitors in the door and gate section. In 2025 the show expected to host around 100 international key professionals in its Buyer Club, including ACMI members and representatives of medium-to-large enterprises, and ACMI's president, Nicola Fornarelli, noted that 2025 marked the association's third consecutive delegation to R+T Asia, with an ACMI delegate speaking at the IWDS conference. Such structured delegations convert a trade fair visit into pre-arranged business meetings, a service aimed particularly at overseas buyers who have travelled far to attend.

Sustainability and Smart Technology Themes

Two themes recur in the show's recent documented positioning: sustainability and smart integration. The choice of low-carbon development as the 2024 IWDS theme reflects the role that external sun shading plays in reducing building energy use, a connection the wider R+T brand also emphasises, with sustainability identified as a major focus for the Stuttgart fair's 2027 edition as well, demonstrated through the solutions shown at exhibitors' stands. Sun shading is, in energy terms, a passive technology: correctly specified external shading reduces solar heat gain and cooling demand, which gives the sector a credible place in green building debates across Asia's hot and rapidly urbanising markets.

Smart technology forms the second theme. Documented exhibitor categories at R+T Asia include door and gate automation and smart-home integration, alongside motorised and automated shading systems. Automation changes the products themselves, from manually operated roller shutters to motorised, sensor-responsive and network-connected systems, and it changes the buyer, bringing home-automation and building-systems companies into the show's audience. By presenting shading, doors and gates together with automation and smart-home integration, R+T Asia reflects the convergence of the traditional building-components trade with consumer and commercial building technology, a convergence also visible in the BUILD ASIA neighbours devoted to prefabricated and integrated interiors.

Significance for the Asia-Pacific Building Industry

R+T Asia's significance rests on its position as the Asian anchor of the world's leading fair brand for its sector, held annually in the region's largest market. China is described by the show's own co-organiser as a very dynamic market in the sun shading, doors and gates business, and the Asia-Pacific region as the premier hub the show serves. For Chinese manufacturers, the fair offers direct access to overseas buyers, association delegations and the R+T Alliance's global network, including the prospect of participation at R+T in Stuttgart, as ACMI's planned collective pavilion at R+T 2027 illustrates in reverse. For international companies, it offers a concentrated, organised entry point to Chinese and Asian demand, with pavilions, buyer programmes and summit conferences reducing the cost of finding partners.

Twenty years after its 2005 launch, the record supports the organisers' assessment. A show that could draw 642 exhibitors and 41,505 visitors before the pandemic, recover to a record 50,881 visitors from 98 countries in 2023, and present around 750 brands at its 20th anniversary in 2025, in the same year the parent brand marked 60 years since 1965, has established itself as a durable institution of the Asia-Pacific building calendar. As a core part of BUILD ASIA at Shanghai's National Exhibition and Convention Center, co-organised by Messe Stuttgart and Globus Events, R+T Asia continues to perform the classic trade fair functions of trend barometer, innovation platform and meeting point for its sector, adapted to the scale and speed of the Asian construction market.