Invited by China Print Show Company, (CPSC) ME Printer attended China Print International Media week during January to learn about the latest developments in the run up to China Print 2013 exhibition.
The China Print show will be held from 14 to 18 May 2013 at New China Exhibition Center in Beijing. Judging by the facts and figures offered during the presentations by the Chinese officials and the organizer of the event, China Print will reflect the staggering growth in China’s printing industry. More than 20 international trade media from USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Russia, Korea, UAE, India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan participated at the event. In total 150 attendees participated in China Print Media week. The program also included a visit to the Masterwork factory and Tianchin Beichen Hi-tech industrial park as well as the New China International Exhibition Center, which will host China Print 2013.
While exhibitions in Europe and the US are struggling to attract companies, China Print is set to become the most vibrant and sought after trade event in Asia and beyond. More than 10,000 companies already confirmed their participation. The total floor space booked already is 160,000 sqm; 60% larger than China Print 2009. The estimated visitor turnout is 180,000, which would be a new record. It will be the largest printing show in Asia and the second largest in the world. China print and its twin exhibition Print China in Dongguan have so far proved to be recession proof.
China Print 2013 is organized by the Printing and Printing Equipment Industries Association of China (PEIAC) and the China International Exhibition Center Group Corporation (CIEC Group). During the press conference in Drupa 2012, the organizer announced that 100,000 square meters of NCIEC’s indoor show space had already been sold out, with over 200 exhibitors still in the waiting list. In August of 2012, the organizer decided to build temporary halls to satisfy exhibitors’ demand. Since then, the total show area kept increasing.
China’s economic growth has been slightly slowed down due to the influence of global economic downturn. However large domestic market demand and the increased government investment will support the next round of China’s economic development. Yan Xiaohong, Deputy Director of General Administration of Press and Publication, has announced that the annual output value of China’s press and publication industry has exceeded 1.5 trillion RMB (Renminbi) in 2011. The printing industry has contributed over 860 billion RMB, to the whole amount. By 2016, the total output value of China’s press and publication will reach 3 trillion RMB, which indicates that it will be a great potential for China’s printing industry.
By the end of 2011, the number of printers in China had increased to 102,484. About 3.57 million people are working in different sectors of China’s printing industry. Meanwhile total output of printing industry increased to 867.7 billion Yuan and the gross value of assets amounted to 925.7 billion Yuan. Until the end of 2011 there were 6821 publication printers, 47,377 packaging printers, 44,868 commercial printers, 2676 typesetting, platemaking and binding companies and 799 digital printers active in China. Based on the total output, Chinese printing industry is now the second biggest printing industry in the world.
In 2011, the Chinese printing equipment market reached 50 billion Yuan (about 8.2 billion US dollars). According to the statistics released by General Administration of Customs, in 2011, China imported printing equipment worth more than 2.54 billion US dollars.
Chinese Printing Market Prospect
From 2005 to 2011, the average annual growth rate of Chinese printing industry was 9.6% higher than the GDP annual growth rate. Chinese macro economic growth now transits from the pursuit of speed to improvement of quality. So, what will be the future trends?
According to the 12th five-year development goals of Chinese printing industry we can have the following forecast:
. With the projected growth rate of 6.5% China’s GDP will reach 2900 billion Yuan by 2030.
. Assuming that the Chinese printing industry grows 3% faster than Chinese economy growth rate from 2011 to 2030 (average annual growth rate of 9.5%); in 2030 it will reach 4800 billion Yuan.
. In the next 20 years, Chinese printing industry will enjoy a sustained growth with the rate higher than the GDP growth rate.
Side Events
A series of high-level international seminars will be held during CHINA PRINT 2013. The third FORUM-PI, Asia Print Annual Meeting, Global Print Secretary-general Meeting, CHINA PRINT AWARDS and other conventions will be held. At the same time, a series of activities covering digital printing, green, standard, packaging, label, and inkjet area will also take place.
Major Companies Embracing China Print
While major press manufacturers are pulling out of IPEX, they are participating with full force in China Print. Heidelberg, KBA, Komori and manroland have all taken large stands, while HP has increased its space from 1000 sqm in 2009 to 3600 sqm in 2013. Kodak, Canon, Ricoh, Fuji, Konica Minolta have decided to take large exhibiting area. Major local manufacturers such as Shanghai Electrics, Beiren Group, Hans-Gronhi, Masterwork and Founder will exhibit in a big and eye catching fashion as well.
Following the welcome speeches, high profile international and Chinese companies including Heidelberg, HP, Konica Minolta, Founder Group, Kodak graphic communications, Shanghai Electric, Beiren Printing Machinery, manroland and Hanzghou Cron briefed the journalists and other attendees on their participation in China and technologies that they will bring to the show. Heidelberg has more than 3700 square meters of exhibition space in China Print. The company will focus on commercial and packaging solutions. But as far as I understood there won’t be any new technology on display.
HP will focus on its cloud solution as well as Indigo range of digital printing presses. HP has sold more than 500 Indigo presses in China.
Komori, which has a production facility in China, will highlight its Komori on Demand solution. It is a combination of digital and offset system. Komori has sold more than 1100 printing presses to China. Its production facility in China uses state- of- the- art solar panel technology as a model for environmentally friendly production site.
Konica Minolta will launch a new digital press branded as Bizhub press 1250 plus web to print solutions. Founder Group, which is one of the biggest software manufacturers in China will show case its platform for printing and publishing on demand. The company also offers solutions to enhance security features of printed products as well as ink management systems. The company is also a major supplier of CTP systems. Founder’s CTP installed base is more than 1500 in China alone.
Shanghai Electric is a huge industrial group in China. The company now owns Goss as well as a host of other local and international companies. Shanghai Electric operates in 55 countries and has a network of 16 subsidiaries. Its annual turnover exceeds 5 billion Yuan. The company will showcase its Akiyama range of sheetfed press as well as Goss web machines plus post press and packaging printing equipment.
Beiren, which perhaps is the biggest press manufacturer in China will put on display a wide range of presses including new B1 and B2 sheetfed presses as well as web machines, a new rotogravure press and other new equipment. Beiren has a 70% market share in China, or at least this is what they claim.
Manroland in its presentation concentrated more on the changes in market dynamics in China. According to manroland the number of local printing companies fell by 1.8% during 2011. On the other hand, large printing companies are on the rise. Competition in printing industry has intensified and the price of raw material is on the rise mainly due to increasing price of energy. Labour cost is also going up.
The last company to offer presentation during the first day of the international media week was Hanzghou Cron, a major Chinese CTP manufacturer. The company has offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Germany. Cron has sold more than 1000 CTP machines worldwide and holds a number of patents in colour management systems.
My Take Away
This is my second China Print media week and I’m impressed yet again by the utter size of the exhibition and its rapid growth.
Along with the exhibition the number of attendees to the Media Week is also increasing. There are more trade journals eager to participate in China Print and Print China media week to find out the latest developments of these successful shows.
Still there are challenges left, especially when it comes to information that is available in different languages.
Organizer of the show told me that they will make available content in different languages in their web site, and that they are trying hard to overcome the language barrier.
But my feeling is that it will take a while. However with the stagnant printing market in the West, the ink on paper industry has to immigrate to a world more welcoming and hospitable.
China seems to be a perfect place and the language is a barrier that printing can easily climb.
A visit to Masterwork
The media week was not all about presentations and meetings. The organizer tried to make our visit as interesting as possible, and that’s why for the second day a trip to the factory of one of the biggest manufacturers of die cutting machines in China was included in the agenda. The company sells more than 200 die cutting machines per year. Other than automatic platen die cutters the company manufactures automatic platen and cylinder foil stamping press as well as folder gluer and sheet inspection machine in a broad range of sizes and configurations.
The company has 20 offices and more than 1000 partners around the globe. Masterwork was established in 1995. In March 2011, the company was registered in Wall Street and in March 2012 the company was listed on the stock exchange in Shenzhen. In the company’s 57,000 square meter facility there is a museum and a gallery filled with die cutting and printing jobs done by Masterwork’s customers.
The company’s flagship high speed folder gluer is offered in different sizes and configuration. The machine drive system adopts new synchronization belt and drive of synchronization belt wheel. The machine benefits from an all steel structure and modular design. The company’s 920 SS – foil stamping and die cutting combination machine has been relatively successful around the globe. The machine overcomes the constraint of one main platen press section on normal foil stamping machine. MK 920 SS is equipped with servo motor for pressure adjustment nonstop feed and delivery system as well as pneumatic side lay.
The company is represented by Mercongraphics in the Middle East. Mercongraphics is affiliated to Manugraph, which distributes Masterwork products in India. The company’s headquarter and plant in China is about one and half hour’s drive from Beijing.
Although the company is young but it seems that it has gone through a rapid development attuned to China’s fast growth. However the rising cost of labour in China is beginning to bite all the manufacturers including Masterwork.
Followed by Masterwork, we found the opportunity to visit Tianjin Beichen Hi tech industrial park. The park is one of the 57 high tech industrial parks approved by the state council with more than 350 enterprises from 24 countries, 18 of which are amongst the world’s top 500 companies. When completed, the park will accommodate industrial manufacturers from different sectors including printing. Our last leg of the trip to China included a guided tour to New China Exhibition Center. To tell you the truth visiting empty halls of a giant exhibition centre is not fun.
But when you think that these halls will be, within a few months time, filled with equipments and people, you will see the brighter side of the picture.
Even the outside area will be covered by temporary tents to accommodate all the companies that did not find (exhibition) space inside the halls. The irony here is that the tents are manufactured and installed by a German company called Losberger.
