Survey of China’s Printing Industry Development 2008

 Published：2009-05-25      Origin：www.cpp1.cn

China's printing industry maintained the healthy and stable developing tendency in 2008, and the printing industry has become an important industrial sector of the national economy.

In 2008, there were 102,043 printing enterprises of all kinds in China. Of all these printing enterprises, 6,427 were engaged in publication printing, 43,096 in printed matters for packaging and decoration, 49,211 in other printed matters, 3,263 in special  typesetting, plate making and bookbinding and 46 in digital printing. There were 2,394 foreign-invested printing enterprises, including 945 Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, 218 contractual Chinese-foreign joint ventures and 1,231 wholly foreign-owned enterprises. There were 155 enterprises engaged in publication printing, 2,126 in printed matters for packaging and decorating and 113 in other printed matters. The total investment of various types of printing enterprises was USD19.61b, with registered capital of USD10.988b.

Affected by the international financial crisis, the aggregative index of economic efficiency in printing machinery industry decreased by 63% year-on-year, and the demand for printing machinery products also reduced rapidly. In 2008, the production of new printing machinery products was RMB3.17676b, 13.4% lower than the same period of 2007; the export delivery value was RMB1.01306b, increasing by 2.1% compared with that in 2007. The self-run foreign-exchange earning of printing paper through exports was RMB135.33m, with an increase of 5.9%.

In 2008, the most popular product in the supply of printing industry is the sheet-fed offset press, followed by other printing support materials and other printing machinery accessories. The sheet-fed offset press remained a strong popularity, ranking the first of the list. The supply of printing support materials and printing machinery accessories increased greatly in 2008, and other printing support materials are in the most concern of the buyers. Ink and sheet-fed offset press ranked the second and the third. China’s total output of ink in 2008 accounted for 5-6% of the world’s yield, ranking the fourth, following the United States, Japan and Germany, with an annually growth rate of more than l0%. Other products such as sensitive glue, printing plate material, gilding material, other printing machinery, blanket and sticky printing machine are also in the list.

The Survey of Foreign Investment in China's Printing Industry in 2007

 Published：2008-11-20      Origin：MOFCOM

　　According to the statistics of MOFCOM, 118 foreign investment projects in Printing industry(Printing Industry (Code C23) hereinafter is in accordance with the National Economic Industrial Classification (GB/T4754-2202).) were newly set up in 2007, 13 less than that of the same period in the last year, and the amount of the actual utilized foreign capital reached USD 292730,000, up by 23.67％ year-on-year. The number of newly established foreign invested enterprises and the amount of the actual utilized foreign capital accounted for 0.31％and 0.39％ of the national total number or amount of foreign capital absorption in the Printing industry during the same period.

　　According to the source of foreign capital, calculated by the amount of the actual utilized foreign capital, in 2007, countries or regions: Hong Kong, Br. Virgin Is, Singapore, Korea Rep, United States ranked No.1 to No. 5 in the Printing industry regarding the amount of FDI, accounting for 59.97%, 7.6%, 6.02%, 5.38%, 4% of the total amount of the actual utilized foreign capital of the industry separately.

 

Figure 1 Main Source of FDI of the Printing Industry 2007

 

　　In Printing industry in 2007, ten Asian countries/regions (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Korea) newly set up 100 enterprises in China, with the actual utilized foreign capital of USD 231370,000, up by 3.09％ and up by 39.18％ separately year-on-year. The number of the newly established enterprises and the actual utilized foreign capital accounted for 84.75％ and 79.04％ of the national total number or amount of foreign capital absorption in the same period.

 

The EU actual utilized foreign capital reached USD 3670,000, down by 70.78％ year-on-year. The amount of the actual utilized capital accounted for 1.25％ of the amount of foreign capital absorption in the same period.

 

　　The US newly set up 6 enterprises in China, up by 20％ year-on-year; the actual utilized foreign capital reached USD 11700,000, down by 11.03％ year-on-year. The number of the newly established enterprises and the amount of the actual utilized capital accounted for 5.08％ and 4％ of the national total number or amount of foreign capital absorption in the same period.

 

　　According to regional foreign capital absorption, 112 foreign-invested Printing enterprises were newly set up in the Eastern area, with actual utilized foreign capital of USD 257310,000, accounting for 94.92% and 87.9% of the national total number or amount of foreign capital absorption in the same period. In the Eastern area, Guangdong Province, Jiangsu Province and Beijing ranked among the tops with respect to actual utilized foreign capital, had 66, 11 and 4 newly established foreign-invested enterprises separately, with the actual utilized foreign capital of USD 118890,000, USD 55890,000 and USD 24330,000, accounting for 40.61%, 19.09% and 8.31% of the total amount of the actual utilized capital of the industry in the Eastern area separately.

 

　　3 foreign-invested Printing enterprises were newly set up in the Central region, with actual utilized foreign capital of USD 20980,000, accounting for 2.54% and 7.17% of the national total number or amount of foreign capital absorption in the same period. In the Central region, Jiangxi Province, Henan Province and Anhui Province ranked among the tops with respect to actual utilized foreign capital, with the actual utilized foreign capital of USD 10580,000, USD 9630,000 and USD 770,000, accounting for 3.61%, 3.29% and 0.26% of the total amount of the actual utilized capital of the industry in the Central region separately, Among them, Jiangxi Province and Henan Province had 1 and 1 newly established foreign-invested enterprises separately.

 

　　3 foreign-invested Printing enterprises were newly set up in the Western area, with actual utilized foreign capital of USD 14440,000, accounting for 2.54% and 4.93% of the national total number or amount of foreign capital absorption in the same period. Shaanxi Province, Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province ranked among the tops with respect to actual utilized foreign capital, with the actual utilized foreign capital of USD 9050,000, USD 5000,000 and USD 390,000, accounting for 3.09%, 1.71% and 0.13% of the total amount of the actual utilized capital of the industry in the Western area separately.

Figure 2 Regional Foreign Investment Distribution (by Regional FDI Inflow) of the Printing Industry 2007

 

　　According to utilizing manners of the foreign capital, in 2007, there were 29 Chinese-foreign equity joint venture projects, 87 wholly foreign-invested projects, 2 Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture projects, which newly established in the Printing industry. in 2007, in the Printing  industry, the amount of the actual utilized foreign capital in the Chinese-foreign equity joint venture projects reached USD63230,000; in the wholly foreign-invested projects reached USD213660,000; in the Chinese-foreign contractual joint venture projects reached USD15840,000.

The Commitments to the WTO and the International Practice of Printing Industry

 Published：2002-11-17      Origin：MOFTEC

China’s printing industry was already opened before China’s entry into the WTO, therefore is not included in China’s commitments to the WTO. But China has made the following commitments to packaging services:

With respect to market-access limitations, the Chinese Government has made a commitment that foreign service suppliers will be permitted to establish joint ventures in China. Within one year after China's accession, foreign majority ownership will be permitted. Within three years after China's accession, foreign service suppliers will be permitted to establish wholly foreign-owned subsidiaries. In addition, there are no market-access limitations in respect of cross-border supply and consumption abroad. But with regard to presence of natural persons, the limitations are unbound except as indicated in horizontal commitments. With respect to national treatment limitations, there are no limitations regarding cross-border supply, consumption abroad and commercial presence. With regard to presence of natural persons, the limitations are unbound, except as indicated in horizontal commitments.   

The following regulations guiding this industry are made under the limited catalogue of China’s revised Guiding Catalogue of Industries for Foreign Investment in 2002: printing and duplicating industry: 1. printing of publications (Chinese holding companies, excluding packaging decoration prints ).

According to the aforesaid Guiding Catalogue of Industries for Foreign Investment, Provisional Regulations on Setup of Foreign-Funded Printing Enterprises, and the revised Administrative Statues for the Printing Industry, China allows foreign-funded enterprises to be launched and engaged in packaging decoration prints, while allowing Sino-foreign equity joint ventures and Sino-foreign contractual joint ventures to be set up in printing industry.

In the past 20 years, the printing industry, like other industries in the world, has attained the most rapid development in the technique. However, the burning issue confronting the industry is environmental pollution and the pollution of human being. Therefore, various countries and printing alliances or associations in the world have laid more emphasis on research and development of new technologies, and environmental protection. For instance，to reduce the pollution, some countries have established relevant laws and regulations, such as the law on discharging organic solvent. In 1982, Germany promulgated the Law on Chemical Products to protect its workers in the workshop and the environment. In 1990s, the European and American countries passed an environmental care law on VOC. The law regulated that the printing house and printing ink manufacturer should have: 1). no smell of VOC outside the workshop; 2). the density of volatile materials within the workshop below the prescribed standard.

Although the printing industry and packaging industry may cause the pollution, the developed countries, such as the United States, Japan and EU member countries, and Thailand, Korea and other countries have made the following commitments with regard to market-access limitations:  there are no limitations in respect of cross-border supply, consumption abroad and commercial presence. But with regard to presence of natural persons, the limitations are unbound, except as indicated in horizontal commitments. The developing countries usually do not cover the aforesaid industries in their commitments.

However, sometimes the printing industry is subject to other relevant laws and regulations. Take Hong Kong for example. It is reported that before 1980, Hong Kong's printing industry, subject to the printing clause as prescribed in US Congress Copyright Law, could not print large numbers of books to be sold in USA. The Hong Kong printing houses did not enlarge their printing of such books until the above-mentioned regulation was annulled.

2006 Global Printing Industry Survey

 Published：2007-07-30        Origin：By Expert

In 2006, the world printing industry maintains rapid development. In 2006 total output value of the United States printing industry reached 170.3 billion U.S. dollars, growing by 3% over 2005; the printing companies totaled approximately 39000, practitioners up to 1,083,700, roughly the same as in 2005. The average pre-tax profits of printing enterprises in 2006 increased by 2.7% compared with 2005. Although it was higher than 2.5% in 2005, it was still lower than the growth rate between 1995 and 2001 (3.0%-3.4%). Some better printing enterprises profited by 25%   and the margin rose from 9.4% in 2005 to 10.3%. The average sales of each staff member also rose from 131,601 U.S. dollars in 2005 to 136,469 U.S. dollars in 2006. In leading printing enterprises, the sales of each staff grew from 137,990 U.S. dollars in 2005 to 146,909 U.S. dollars in 2006.

In 2006, materials cost is one of the largest items of expenditure of American printing companies, accounting for about 35.1% of sales. Staff salaries accounted for 25.8%, factories expenditure, 16.9%, management expenses, 9.5% and sales expenses, 9.1%.

In 2006 sales of British printing industry amounted to 27,624 million euros, a 12.6%growth over 24,524 million euros in 2001. Offset printing still occupies the biggest share of sales; in 2006 its sales reached 16,629 million euros, growing by 6.3% over 2001. Digital printing grew fastest. From 2001 to 2006, it sales grew by 226% to 1,995 million euros. Large format printing also grew fast, whose sales increased by 83% over the same period to 1,527 million euros. It is predicted sales of the British printing industry will grow by 8.6% and reach 29,992 million euros from 2006 to 2011.

In 2006, sales of the British packaging printing reached 6,657 million euros, a growth of 14.4% compared with 2001. It is expected to grow by 12.5%, reaching 7,487 million euros from 2006 to 2011. In 2006, sales in other major markets (including advertisements print) were expected to total 4,898 million Euros and sales of magazine printing were estimated to reach 3,131 million euros.

At present the Russian Federation have about 5,500 printing enterprises and joint venture. They include about 1100 state-owned enterprises. Private printing companies mainly use small format printing press, the average number of their employees is not more than 20 people. Private sector accounts for 65% of Russia's total printing industry.

In Russia, 1 million tons of paper is annually consumed in the printing industry, about 50 billion sheets of prints are produced yearly. Among them, 38% are for newspapers, 15% for books, 7% for magazines, and 40% for advertising, packaging, stickers and other prints. In addition to domestically produced paper, each year Russia imports about 200,000 tons of paper, most of which are high-quality coated art paper, label paper and packaging boards.

In recent years, market and the new digital technology develop fast with the printing industry. Digital technology has been adopted for years to increase production efficiency of printing and publishing, mainly in Prepress. But the recent trend is to adopt digital technology in printing equipment and to communicate by digit in the printing process between publishers and advertisers and all links to achieve all-digital process. This raises a new printing market and technology upgrading the field of digital printing and also promotes automatization of the traditional prepress process. Recent Drupa exhibition displayed how to apply Digital Prepress Workflow directly to Mid- and Post-print operations, of course, it could also be traced back to business orders and the management system. Communication between different systems is achieved through JDF.

Printing has now become a full digital-driven industries, the whole process from clients’ apply to submit of the final products is digitally enabled. If there is no digital pretreatment from partners, it is impossible to obtain the current efficient plate printing and digital printing, nor can we enjoy the value-added services enabled by the Internet. In an increasingly shrinking market, printing enterprises will be fully devoted to the competition through digital workflow.

At present, development of the printing industry also affects the direction of enterprises. Because of this, experts have analyzed 12 major future trends of the printing industry:

1. A commercialized workflow system with pre-, mid- and post-press is connected to all-digital production coefficient as a networked printer.

2. Software and interface which control the entire production process by digital methods are to be developed. And the database will be connected to information management systems which provide scheduling, tracking and instructions.

3. Computer-to-film record is to upgrade into computer-to-plate system to achieve higher speed, accuracy and ensure data integrity.

4. Imprinter will not blindly pursue how to speed up, but how to shorten the time between replacements. Plate for sheet and Web Offset Printing will be exposed and automatically used on heat-sensitive computer plate-making machines, thus will save printing preparation and leave more time to production. Short-run can achieve better results by adopting transferable polyester plates. Proofing during the preparation will serve as the final version.

5. Color management ensures high fidelity of all imprinters.

6. The system enables remote access of specific clients’ documents through internal network. High-speed networks and telecommunications systems will continue to improve data transmission and link fragmented production bases. Then data can be directly transmitted from publishers to printers.  

7. Direct imaging imprinters besides offset imprinter will become a technical standard for every offset company.

8. Traditional printing companies have to consider provide wider range of solutions to win in the competition, including from color laser printer to black-and-white and color digital printing press. 9. More and more data is not only used for printing, and also for CDs and the Internet. Consequently, all data must be produced and stored by an open and standard format and archived in open and standard databases.

10. Printing is developing towards short-run and personalized. Printing according to needs is turning increasingly prevalent.

11. Electronic media will increase rather than reduce the printing volume.

12. The strongest growth of print media will emerge in the packaging industry, the press and magazines, advertisements and so on.