Andrew Tribute: global analystI have just returned from a visit to Shanghai where I spoke at the Shanghai International Printing Forum. This was the starting event of the Shanghai International Print Week.

　　While I was at the Print Week I was asked to present one of the awards at the Fourth Shanghai Printing Awards. This was my third visit to Shanghai over the past ten years, and each time I am amazed at the developments that take place in this city. I have also over the past fifteen years made a number of visits to Beijing, also for speaking engagements, so I have had the opportunity to track the developments of the Chinese printing industry over quite a long period of time. I also write a monthly column for the leading Chinese printing magazine, Keyin Print and keep in touch with the market through this publication.

　　Over these years I have seen massive change in both Shanghai and Beijing. When I first visited Beijing there were few cars and millions of bicycles. In fact recently in the UK there was a very successful popular song, Eleven Million Bicycles in Shanghai. Today there are still bicycles but instead there are a huge amount of cars and massive traffic jams. In fact over the past fifteen years the road network in Beijing has vastly increased and there are now three peripheral motorways. The network in Shanghai is vast with a huge amount of major advanced road systems.

　　The volume of building however is what really shows the change in China. Shanghai’s building programme has totally changed the city with a vast number of major high-rise buildings of high quality. In fact at present the key event in China is the Shanghai World Expo, perhaps the largest world fair there has ever been. This is a truly amazing event and this following on from the Beijing Olympics in 2008 shows just how advanced China has become.

　　For the vast majority of people who have not visited China it is difficult to really understand what is happening in this market. We tend to know of China through the huge variety of goods we see that are made in China, and perhaps the perception is the country is successful as a manufacturer because of its huge mass of cheap labour that is available. China however is far more than just a low cost centre of manufacturing.

　　In terms of printing the West, Japan and Australia perhaps see China in terms of low cost printing that takes a sizeable volume of print business away from them. I perhaps shared this view until I really looked at the Chinese industry over the past few years. There have always been very good printing organisations in the China market, in particular C&C Printing out of Hong Kong, but over the past few years there has been a huge increase in high quality printing companies throughout China. Companies like C&C have expanded from Hong Kong to now have large printing operations throughout the country. In fact the investments from China have largely kept the German and Japanese major offset suppliers in business as the Chinese printers purchased the highest specification printing equipment over the past few years.

　　It was interesting at the Shanghai International Printing Forum to hear Chinese governmental administrators talk about the printing industry. Here one heard a fundamental difference to what I hear in other countries in the world. Around the world, apart from SE Asia, many see printing as an industry of the past, rather than one for the future. In China this is fundamentally different with printing being seen as an industry of the future and where the Governmental departments in China’s provinces are investing in growing the industry. They are also seeing it as one where they are prepared to fund new areas of printing such as high-speed inkjet printing where they see future opportunities for Chinese suppliers. What was interesting was to hear the printing industry talked about in such positive terms.

　　At the present time China is predominantly an importer of printing equipment, but not consumables where it is now starting to become an exporter. Even the high-technology companies like Founder predominantly import equipment such as CtP devices, but are developing their own inkjet label presses. Other companies like Shanghai Electronics who recently purchased Goss, and who have been working on inkjet systems have failed to make any significant breakthroughs in this market as yet. There are a large number of wide and super-wide format inkjet printer suppliers, but again these predominantly only supply the local markets. The feeling I get however is that the Chinese do see inkjet printing as a major growth area and would like to build their own presses for this area.

　　The message I got from my latest visit was that China could no longer be considered a third world country. It has one of the fastest growth rates of any country in the world and appears to have no problem of financing future growth. Its education system is producing a very highly educated future work force particularly in high-technology areas. In printing it is producing far more graduates in this subject than any other country in the world. At this time while the Internet is significant and it is not the force of change that it is in the western world.

　　The message I get from my latest visit is that China is no longer just a location for low cost printing. China, and all of SE Asia is now an area where I see some of the highest quality printing being carried out. I saw this at the Shanghai Printing Awards and I also see it at the annual Asian Print Awards. At this time digital printing is not as significant as in the western markets but it is rapidly moving forward. While in Shanghai I visited one of the country’s leading digital printers and saw that they were really challenging digital printing in the Western world.

　　I also saw the huge growth in packaging printing in China that is inevitable as packaging printing normally follows the manufacturing process for all goods. While most of this high-quality printing is for the Chinese markets, I also saw more Chinese companies looking to expand their operations for overseas customers. This is not just the largest Chinese printing companies doing this. I met with one company employing less than 200 staff that has an established sales operation is the USA.

　　China is no longer just a location for cheap printing. It now offers quality comparable to any printers around the world. It is also looking to compete in all areas of printing and also to become expert in the growing market of inkjet printing. It benefits from a supportive government, access to substantial funding, a highly educated workforce, and still low labour costs. The Chinese challenge to the established printing industries of the West, Japan and Australia will increase in the future and this is something that printers in these countries will have to understand and to know how to compete with in the future.

 

[时间：2010-07-13  作者：Andrew Tribute  来源：必胜网]