ACCCSA 2026 Final Day: 850 Participants, 365 Companies and 125 Stands — What Corrugated Plants Are Actually Shopping For

But the more important number may be on the buyer side. ACCCSA’s registration materials say the event brings together more than 130 supplier companies and qualified buyers from more than 70 corrugated companies, with roughly 80% of attendees having final purchasing power or significant influence on purchasing decisions. That makes the final day less about how crowded the hall looks and more about which conversations could turn into orders, retrofits and the next CAPEX cycle.

Emmepi Group is one of the clearest examples of the shift in that conversation. At Stand 92, Alessandro Bersanetti, Alfio Brandi and Andrea Simonetti are discussing materials handling, automatic transportation, stack and pallet movement, strapping, wrapping and plant flow. The point is not simply to move pallets faster. It is to remove waiting between the corrugator, WIP, converting and finished-goods areas — the places where an otherwise fast plant can still lose usable capacity.

BHS Corrugated South America and BOBST represent two other major investment questions. BHS is a confirmed Double Wall sponsor, anchoring the corrugator and lifecycle side of the discussion: availability, maintenance, upgrades, service and long-term productivity. BOBST, a confirmed Single Wall sponsor, is at Stand 65 and is focusing its ACCCSA message on quality and consistency in every box — including inline quality control, faster changeovers and connected processes designed to reduce waste and rework.

What plants are actually comparing

1. More speed — or better flow between machines?

For years, corrugated investment discussions often started with the rated speed of the corrugator or converting line. ACCCSA 2026 shows why that is no longer enough.

Emmepi’s focus on intralogistics is echoed by other suppliers working around the machine rather than only on the machine. MATEC, for example, is presenting solutions around corrugator discharge, WIP, machine infeed and outfeed, finished product, waste handling and industrial safety. The common question is straightforward: if material is waiting, travelling too far or being moved manually, does buying a faster primary machine actually solve the plant’s bottleneck?

For a plant director, that turns intralogistics from a secondary engineering topic into a capacity calculation. Before adding another machine, measure where board waits, how many times a load is touched, how far WIP travels and how often downstream equipment is starved or blocked.

2. Rated speed matters — but effective output matters more

BW Papersystems is at Stand 75 highlighting its Value Corrugator series and ServoPro rotary die cutter. Here the discussion can become more concrete. BW’s published technical information places Value Corrugators in configurations from roughly 200 to 350 metres per minute, depending on the line, while current ServoPro configurations can run up to 225 boxes per minute.

Those headline speeds are useful, but the buying question should go further. A plant rarely runs one easy order all day. The more relevant comparison is effective output across the plant’s real order mix: changeovers, sheet sizes, print complexity, die-cutting load, board grades, waste and operator intervention.

That is also why BOBST’s Stand 65 focus on inline quality control, faster changes and connected production deserves attention. A nominally slower line that changes over faster, rejects less board and requires fewer manual corrections can create more saleable output over a shift than a faster machine with poor flow around it.

3. Quality control is moving closer to the production decision

TECHLAB SYSTEMS at Stand 31 provides another example of where the conversation is becoming more specific. Its ACCCSA offer includes laboratory and quality-control testing for corrugated board and paper, including BCT, ECT, PAT, FCT, RCT, CMT, CCT, SCT, Wet Shear and Score Bending tests.

The important issue is not the length of the test menu. It is what the plant does with the data. If ECT, BCT or compression results are reviewed only after a problem reaches the customer, testing remains defensive. If those results are connected to paper combinations, corrugator settings, board recipes and converting performance, quality data becomes a production tool.

That is a practical area where many plants can improve without waiting for a completely new line.

4. Digitalisation and AI need a plant problem first

Koenig & Bauer is at Stand 102 discussing flexographic and digital printing, converting, automation and digitalisation. The ACCCSA conference agenda also gives artificial intelligence unusual prominence, including sessions on AI, manufacturing, planning and business decision-making.

The danger is treating AI as a project before the underlying production data is reliable. If ERP, planning, maintenance, quality and machine information remain fragmented, adding another analytics layer can simply make fragmented information easier to visualise.

The more useful sequence is the opposite: define the plant problem first. Is the target lower waste, fewer emergency stops, faster scheduling, better maintenance planning, shorter changeovers or more accurate quality prediction? Then ask what data is missing and which system needs to be connected.

The producers are in the room too

This is not only a supplier exhibition. Smurfit Westrock is a confirmed Double Wall sponsor, while Guatemala’s host corrugator community includes Caisa Cartón, Cajas y Empaques de Guatemala, Cartones de Guatemala, Compañía Industrial Corrugadora Guatemala, Empaques San Lucas and Cartocentro.

Cajas y Empaques de Guatemala and SigmaQ also hosted an official pre-convention technical visit on August 24, giving participating corrugators a direct look at plant operations before the exhibition opened.

That producer presence matters because the most useful conversations at ACCCSA are not about what a machine can do in ideal conditions. They are about what plants are struggling with now.

Sergio Tejada, General Manager of Compañía Industrial Corrugadora Guatemala, described the convention as putting Guatemala “at the centre of the regional stage.” That is more than a host-country message: local corrugators are part of the investment conversation, not simply the audience for it.

What the exhibition does not prove

A crowded exhibition hall is not proof of a regional CAPEX boom. Sponsor status is not a purchase order. A new automation concept on a stand does not mean every converter needs it. And the presence of AI, digital printing and connected-machine language does not mean every plant has the data, people or capital to deploy those technologies profitably.

The evidence will come after Guatemala: signed equipment orders, retrofit projects, software integrations, service agreements, new installations and measurable improvements in uptime, waste, changeover time and saleable output.

That distinction matters because it keeps the story commercial rather than promotional. ACCCSA shows where suppliers want the market to move. The next 6–12 months will show where corrugated producers actually spend.

A practical checklist for plant directors

• Map the bottleneck before buying speed. Measure WIP waiting time, material travel, manual touches and blocking/starving between the corrugator and converting equipment.
• Ask for effective-output data, not only rated speed. Compare machines using your own order mix, board grades, changeover frequency, print requirements and waste assumptions.
• Separate intralogistics CAPEX from primary-machine CAPEX. Conveyors, pallet handling, WIP movement, strapping and wrapping can have their own productivity case.
• Turn quality tests into process inputs. Connect ECT, BCT and other laboratory results to paper combinations, recipes and production settings instead of treating them only as final verification.
• Audit data connectivity before starting an AI project. Identify where ERP, planning, maintenance, quality and machine data do not communicate.
• Test the regional-service promise. Ask suppliers who will respond locally, where critical spare parts are stocked, what remote support is available and how quickly a technician can reach the plant.

What to watch after Guatemala

The most important follow-up is not which company won attention on the exhibition floor. Watch which technologies convert into orders.

If intralogistics projects accelerate, it will suggest producers are trying to unlock capacity around existing machinery. If corrugator upgrades and lifecycle agreements grow, it will show that uptime and asset life are competing with greenfield replacement. If quality systems, connected converting and production software gain investment, it will indicate that plants are chasing more saleable output and faster decisions rather than headline machine speed alone.

As ACCCSA 2026 enters its final hours, the exhibition still has time left to run. But the more interesting story begins after 18:00, when the stands start coming down.

850 participants, 365 companies and 125 stands show the scale of the conversation. The orders, retrofits and operating results that follow will show what the market actually believed.