From May 20 to 23, 2026, the highly anticipated 17th China International Elevator Exhibition was successfully held in Area A of Guangzhou Pazhou Complex. After twelve years, this top industry event returned to Guangzhou grandly. Relying on the superior industrial foundation and foreign trade location advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as Guangzhou’s high-quality exhibition business environment, it has created a grand elevator industry feast with larger scale, more complete industrial chain and higher internationalization, becoming the core vane of the global elevator industry development in 2026.

The overall exhibition scale exceeded 100,000 square meters, covering multiple full-scale exhibition halls of Guangzhou Pazhou Complex. The exhibits fully covered the whole industrial chain of the elevator industry, including complete elevator equipment, core drive and control systems, precision parts, intelligent operation and maintenance equipment, complete solutions for elevator installation in old buildings, customized home elevators, new green energy-saving materials, elevator safety protection devices and a full range of supporting services. Boasting strong industry appeal, the exhibition gathered more than 1,000 high-quality global exhibitors in the elevator field, covering all segmented fields such as complete machine manufacturing, core component R&D, intelligent system development and supporting services, fully presenting the upstream and downstream ecology of the elevator industry and laying a solid foundation for industry technological exchanges and cross-border trade cooperation.

Focusing on internationalization, marketization and professionalism, the exhibition has outstanding overseas radiation capabilities. It attractedmore than 100,000 global professional visitors for exhibition visits, negotiations and procurement, covering more than 20 countries and regions including Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Vietnam, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Overseas professional visitors accounted for more than one-third, making it a core high-quality platform for domestic elevator foreign trade enterprises to connect with overseas purchasers, explore cross-border orders and expand emerging overseas markets.

The core highlight of this exhibition lies in all-dimensional technological iteration, innovative solution implementation and industrial trend reform. It showcased a number of cutting-edge technologies leading industrial development, breaking the functional limitations of traditional elevator equipment and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the elevator industry from traditional equipment manufacturing to intelligence, greenness, safety and customization. The exhibition focused on displaying four core technological development trends, which are also the core competitive tracks in the global elevator foreign trade market.

First, the full implementation of AI digital intelligent full-life-cycle management technology has reconstructed the operation, maintenance and operation system of elevators. The exhibition displayed intelligent elevator control systems based on big data and AI large models. Equipped with intelligent passenger flow prediction and dynamic algorithm dispatching technology, it can automatically optimize transportation capacity according to building passenger flow peaks, increasing peak transportation capacity by 50% and reducing average waiting time by 22%, greatly improving building traffic efficiency. Meanwhile, the innovative AI predictive maintenance technology can collect real-time elevator operation data to predict potential failures 7-15 days in advance, upgrading the traditional post-maintenance mode to active pre-prevention, effectively reducing the equipment failure rate by 60% and extending the service life of equipment by 3-5 years. In addition, AI visual recognition and millimeter-wave radar monitoring technologies are widely applied to automatically identify risk scenarios such as electric bicycles entering elevators, children taking elevators alone, personnel falls and foreign object occlusion, linked with active child lock and intelligent early warning functions to comprehensively upgrade elevator safety levels, meeting the safety standards of high-end residential buildings, commercial buildings and old renovation projects at home and abroad.

Second, the large-scale popularization of green and low-carbon energy-saving technologies conforms to global green trade standards. Under the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, energy conservation and consumption reduction have become the core competitiveness of elevator foreign trade. A number of new-generation energy-saving drive technologies and environmentally friendly materials were unveiled at the exhibition. Innovative equipment such as dynamic high-pressure energy feedback systems, lightweight energy-saving traction machines and low-energy consumption drive modules have greatly reduced elevator operation energy consumption, with a single elevator saving more than 2,500 kWh of electricity annually and a comprehensive energy-saving rate of over 30%. At the same time, new industry lightweight environmentally friendly building materials and low-loss transmission accessories are widely used, reducing equipment self-weight and material costs while cutting carbon emissions, fully meeting the green infrastructure procurement requirements of overseas markets in Europe, America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and becoming a core competitive advantage for Chinese elevators going global.

Third, the iterative upgrading of active safety protection technologies has consolidated the industry’s safety barriers. The exhibition launched a new generation of elevator active safety systems, integrating millimeter-wave radar, intelligent sensing and AI algorithm technologies. It can real-time monitor elevator operation status and riding scenarios, realizing active identification, intelligent early warning and automatic protection for scenarios such as children riding alone, elderly falls, trapped passengers due to faults and illegal maintenance operations. Meanwhile, supporting equipment such as intelligent safety maintenance devices and AI intelligent safety helmets were showcased, which can real-time supervise the maintenance operation process, eliminate illegal operations, and upgrade traditional passive safety supervision to real-time dynamic protection, comprehensively improving the safety of the whole process of elevator installation, operation and maintenance.

Fourth, mature customized technologies for segmented scenarios adapt to the diverse needs of the global market. In response to the differences in global infrastructure and scenario demands, the exhibition launched a variety of customized elevator solutions. The integrated elevator installation solutions for old communities and existing buildings solve the pain points of narrow space and limited infrastructure in old buildings. Segmented products such as low-noise home elevators for small spaces, high-value sightseeing elevators, high-load commercial elevators and outdoor adaptive platform elevators have been fully iterated. Meanwhile, customized adaptation technologies for different overseas scenarios such as high temperature and humidity in Southeast Asia, sand and wind in the Middle East, and high-end buildings in Europe and America have been unveiled, which can meet the building standards, climatic conditions and usage needs of different countries, greatly expanding the overseas adaptation scenarios of Chinese elevators.

In addition to technology displays, the exhibition held a series of supporting events including global elevator industry summit forums, cross-border trade docking meetings and new technology achievement release conferences. Focusing on core topics such as the upgrading of global elevator industry technical standards, interpretation of overseas trade policies, solutions to cross-border cooperation pain points and opportunities for stock market renovation, it gathered global industry experts and purchasers to share cutting-edge information, providing professional support for elevator foreign trade enterprises to accurately grasp industry trends, avoid trade risks and connect with high-quality overseas resources.

Meanwhile, the exhibition held a series of concurrent events including global elevator industry summit forums, overseas market trade docking meetings, and new technology and product launch conferences. Focusing on core topics such as global elevator foreign trade policies, cross-border trade pain points, overseas infrastructure market opportunities and industry technical standard upgrades, it provided professional support for foreign trade enterprises to interpret the latest industry trends, avoid trade risks and connect with high-quality overseas resources.

This Guangzhou Elevator Exhibition is of far-reaching benchmark significance for the domestic elevator foreign trade industry. At present, the global elevator market presents a dual growth trend of "stock renovation and upgrading + incremental infrastructure expansion". Infrastructure demands in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America continue to rise, while the demands for the renewal of old elevators and replacement of high-end intelligent elevators remain strong in European and American markets. Meanwhile, global procurement standards for greenness, intelligence and safety continue to upgrade. Leveraging Guangzhou’s advantages as a foreign trade hub, the exhibition has built a full industrial chain link of "technology display - achievement transformation - product trading - cross-border docking". It fully demonstrates the hard strength of Chinese elevators in intelligent technology, energy-saving innovation, safety upgrading and customized R&D, and presents the technological iteration achievements and supply chain advantages of China’s elevator industry to global purchasers. It further enhances the international reputation and market share of Chinese elevators, injecting strong impetus for domestic elevator enterprises to deepen penetration into global segmented markets and expand cross-border orders in 2026.