Visitors Halved in 3 Years... Korea's Largest Hydrogen Exhibition Shrinks

"World Hydrogen Expo (WHE) 2026" Concludes
266 Companies from 22 Countries; Around 19,000 Visitors
Down 53.6% from 41,000 in 2024

A view of the exhibition hall at World Hydrogen Expo (WHE) 2026. World Hydrogen Expo Organizing Committee.

When I entered the World Hydrogen Expo (WHE) 2026 exhibition hall at KINTEX Exhibition Center 2 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on the afternoon of November 5, I could not shake the feeling that it was markedly smaller than last year. Local government promotional booths had taken the places where major companies had set up stands in the past. It was also clear that both the number of visitors and the number of reporters seated in the press room had declined.

The official figures confirmed this. On November 9, the World Hydrogen Expo Organizing Committee said that about 19,000 people had visited the event, held from November 4 to 6. A total of 266 companies from 22 countries took part in the exhibition and conference. The exhibition section of WHE 2026 had 197 participating companies from 12 countries.

The event, previously held primarily as an exhibition under the name H2 MEET, has been held as the World Hydrogen Expo (WHE) since 2025, combining the exhibition with an international conference. Despite its grander name, the event has continued to shrink.

H2 MEET, held in 2024, drew 41,000 visitors and brought together 317 companies and organizations from 24 countries. Compared with this year's event, the number of participating companies and organizations fell by 16.1%, while visitor numbers dropped by 53.6%. In terms of visitors alone, the event's scale has been cut in half in three years.

The World Hydrogen Expo Organizing Committee, which hosted the event, explained: "The 2024 H2 MEET was held jointly with three exhibitions, including the K-Battery Show and the Korea International HVAC&R Exhibition, and the visitor figure announced at the time included visitors to the other exhibitions as well." It added, "Differences in counting methods make it difficult to compare visitor numbers for H2 MEET 2024 and WHE 2026 directly."

When the event was first consolidated under the WHE name last year, it billed itself as the "largest ever." The number of participating countries reached a record 26, but the number of participating companies and organizations fell to 279, and visitor numbers declined to 25,000. This year, the numbers of participating countries, organizations, companies, and visitors all fell.

Given its ambition to become an international event, last year's opening ceremony drew a broad range of government and diplomatic officials from Australia, Germany, France, Canada, and other countries. This year, however, only representatives of international organizations related to hydrogen were present.

Global companies such as Linde, Air Liquide, and 3M, which exhibited last year, were absent this year. From the Korean government, Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Seong-hwan attended last year, while this year he was represented by Lee Ho-hyeon, the ministry's second vice minister.

The organizing committee explained: "In 2005, the Hydrogen Council's general assembly, a body comprising the chief executives of more than 140 hydrogen companies worldwide, was held in Korea, creating conditions for various overseas companies to participate." It added, "This makes it difficult to compare the decline in the number of participating companies this year directly."

However, hydrogen industry representatives broadly agree that the sharp contraction of WHE, the country's largest hydrogen event with international ambitions, is not unrelated to the government's lack of a hydrogen policy.

According to the National Assembly Budget Office, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment's proposed budget for its hydrogen vehicle deployment program for 2027 is KRW 445.7 billion, down 22.6% from this year's revised budget of KRW 576.2 billion. The budget for installing hydrogen refueling stations next year is also set at KRW 119.7 billion, a 36.9% decrease from this year's revised budget of KRW 189.7 billion.

The outlook is bleak not only for transportation but also for power generation. In the government's 2026 hydrogen power generation auction, the volume for the clean hydrogen power generation auction was just 7.7% of the 2024 level. The auction volume for general hydrogen power generation fell by 28.5%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.