In the global printing market, the packaging and printing industry is not like a sleeping giant, but it is just not fully understood by people. In April, 2006, IPEX 2006 International Printing Exhibition will be held in Britain, and the booth area occupied by exhibitors in packaging processing industry will be greatly increased, totaling more than 20,000 square meters. This shows that the global packaging and printing market is recovering.

According to the report provided by Comexi, a famous manufacturer of packaging, printing and paper products processing machinery, one third of the annual turnover of the global printing market is created by the packaging and printing industry. This is a market with an annual turnover of $250 billion. And it is still growing. In contrast, the annual turnover of global book printing is only $654.38+000 billion.

Recently, a research project conducted by the printing industry market information and research organization investigated the packaging processing and packaging printing industry in the United States and its four main departments, namely corrugated paper packaging, folding cartons, flexible packaging and label making. The results show that the total value of packaging, printing and processing in North America reached $68 billion in 2004, and it is expected to increase to $83 billion before 2009. Moreover, the growth rate of these sectors will reach or exceed the growth rate of commercial printing industry and national economy.

Therefore, it is not surprising that those world-famous printing machine manufacturers are increasingly interested in the packaging industry. With 80% of the paper packaging boxes printed by offset press, Heidelberg Company is not only developing its own offset press production towards fast and reliable replaceable equipment to meet the needs of paper packaging box production, but also merging some packaging equipment manufacturers to expand its brand advantages, such as Jagenberg Company, which produced cutting machines and folding machines two years ago.

Bernhald Schreier, global CEO of Heidelberg, said that in the process of their corporate restructuring, enhancing the overall corporate value of Heidelberg Group is a major goal. Heidelberg will still be committed to the production of sheet-fed offset press, which is its core field and has become a leading enterprise in the global market, but it will also be committed to the field of packaging and label printing, because this is a market that is experiencing strong growth. At present, Heidelberg has been able to provide customers with a complete set of products and solutions in packaging and label printing. Its series of printing machines are specially developed for this field, which can meet the various needs of customers.

In the past year, after visiting the German experimental base in Heidelberg, many manufacturers of paper packaging boxes became interested in Heidelberg's "Speedmaster XL 105" printing machine. Based on cost-effective and high-quality design, the productivity of this printing machine has been greatly improved. Bernhald Schreier said that the mass production of this machine has started, and it is being delivered and installed all over the world.

Gary Doman, the sales director of Roland Sheet-fed Printing Machine, also believes that the packaging market is extremely important to his company and is also their core business. Before 15, the production of packaging boxes was quite simple, but now it has become very complicated, and there are many post-press processes that can enhance the added value. Roland company has been "online" packaging processing procedures and machinery. It has invested heavily in R&D, and the latest example is its "Prindor" online aluminum foil adding system.

Another market driving force for printing machine manufacturers is to help package owners reduce production costs. In this respect, profit is everything. Roland believes that paper packaging box manufacturers can't raise prices and must save production costs. In this way, printing machine manufacturers should also devote themselves to cost control in the research and development of new products. Roland's Hawkeye paper monitoring system is an example.

The system monitors whether each paper is defective based on the readable information of the transmitted paper. With the help of high-speed camera and instantaneous computer analysis, it can check any abnormality in paper feeding and identify defective paper.

Another major trend in the packaging and printing market is that packaging and processing equipment manufacturers are expanding their scale to meet the needs of more market sectors. It has become the goal of many equipment manufacturers to pursue global operation and provide all-round equipment for packaging customers. An excellent example of this is Bobst Company in Switzerland, which was famous for manufacturing cartons, corrugated board printing and post-press equipment in the past 10 years. In recent years, it first entered the flexible packaging market, and began to produce gravure printing, flexography, coating compounding, cutting and other equipment through the merger of Schiavi Company. Then, last year, bost took another big step and completed the final merger and acquisition of Weimeide packaging and processing equipment company. The latter brought some world-famous brand products to bost company, such as "Titan", "Atlas" paper cutter and rewinder, "Apollo" web paper cutting equipment, and "Rotamec" and "General" gravure technology equipment which are leading in the field of metallization and shielding.

Bobst once proudly claimed that they have been able to meet all the needs of large packaging enterprises. The advantage of this company now lies in the synergy of different technologies and market fields. For example, in flexographic printing, the ink printing process is actually the same for films, cartons, corrugated paper, etc. In the market, for example, in the cigarette industry, bost can provide all kinds of equipment for producing cartons, outer packaging boxes and films.

Comexi company in Spain is another example. At present, the company is actively expanding the field of packaging and processing, but obviously focuses on soft packaging. It claims that it sold more flexographic printing machines than any other company in the world last year, and it also achieved success in producing coating and film equipment. Another little-known fact is that it is actually the holding company of Proslit Company, which produces paper cutters and rewinders, and Enviroxi Company, which produces environmental protection equipment, and also holds shares in Kmee Company, which produces web cutter, label cutting and coating equipment. Comexi believes that the current trend of market globalization and centralization is still continuing. In 2004, about 60% of the global market share of flexible packaging processing was concentrated in the hands of 10 large companies. The only way for the market to survive is to become a market-leading group or join another group. Comexi obviously adopted the first strategy.

In April this year, Comexi announced that it had formed a strategic alliance with the Italian company Acom, and reached an agreement with it to include Acom's "RG PIatinum" gravure press into its product line. Comexi said that their goal is to enter the top three in the world in all market sectors.

In addition, Cerutti, a specialized company that produces gravure printing equipment, also showed great interest in packaging and processing equipment. The gravure press it produces has occupied an important market share for a long time. Recently, Flexotecnica has been acquired to produce flexo printing machines, and it has also achieved success in the field of packaging processing equipment.

In the past few years, due to the efforts of packaging processing enterprises to strive for new market resources, the production structure of packaging processing has undergone some changes. For example, in Russia and Poland, most packaging enterprises have accepted or established their own green production bases. Because equipment manufacturers always try to meet the needs of their own customers, that is, packaging processing owners, packaging processing industry has an obvious guiding role for equipment manufacturers, forming a situation of "either come with us or come with us".

What will the world packaging market be like in the future? What is certain is that the production scale of large packaging manufacturers will become larger and larger, and they will continue to annex small and medium-sized peer enterprises that do not meet the market demand. At the same time, some smaller professional market areas may be ignored by large enterprises, which may also provide vitality for those smaller but more professional packaging processing enterprises. For printing equipment manufacturers, the huge packaging market potential can not be ignored.

Market development of flexographic printing industry in Chinese mainland

Although flexographic printing started late in China, through the continuous development in recent years, flexographic printing has gained a firm foothold in the packaging and printing market in China, and it is also expanding its product categories and printing fields, especially the printing market of cigarette packets/wine packets and self-adhesive labels, which has now accounted for more than 30% of the market.

According to statistics, there are about 350 flexographic printing production lines in China, most of which are located in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and other western inland provinces and cities.

The development of flexographic printing market presents the following main characteristics:

Product varieties are constantly enriched, and the printing field is constantly expanding.

Flexographic printing can be used in a wide range of fields, especially in the flexible packaging printing industry. Flexographic printing has been recognized by users in the fields of cigarette packets, wine packets, drug packaging, food packaging, trademark label printing and various self-adhesive printing, and has occupied a considerable market share. At the same time, flexographic printing is also expanding to other printing fields, such as computer lottery, various tickets, stationery, sanitary products, pre-printing of corrugated boxes and so on. , flexographic printing products are also constantly enriched.

The printing quality is constantly improving.

With the continuous development of flexographic printing in China market, users have higher and higher requirements for printing quality. In order to meet the market demand for high-end packaging and printing products, many large packaging and printing enterprises have introduced foreign high-level flexographic printing machines to continuously improve the printing quality of flexographic printing products.

Combined with other printing processes

The competition in packaging and printing industry is becoming more and more fierce, and the quality requirements for printed matter are getting higher and higher. A single printing method can no longer meet the requirements of exquisite printing. Many printing equipment manufacturers began to combine offset printing, gravure printing, flexography, screen printing and other printing processes. Especially in the field of tobacco and alcohol packaging and printing, the combined printing technology is becoming more and more mature, and the characteristics and advantages of various printing methods are fully exerted, which greatly improves the quality of tobacco and alcohol packaging printed matter in China.

Promote the development of related materials and equipment.

The development of domestic flexographic printing industry has also driven the development of related industries. Many materials matching flexographic printing have been produced in China, such as water-based inks, which are produced by many domestic manufacturers, and the quality is gradually improving, gradually replacing imported inks. The anilox roller and die-cutting roller have been put into production in China, and other materials and equipment that still need to be imported are much more flexible and convenient to purchase.

Formed a relatively complete industrial chain

There are more than 10 equipment manufacturers in China, such as Xi 'an Heiniu, Shannxi Beiren, Beiren Fuji, Shanghai Ziguang, Shanxi Taihang, Qingzhou Yifafa, etc., which can produce flexo printing machines. At the same time, the R&D and production of supporting equipment such as anilox roller, plate and ink also go hand in hand, forming a relatively complete industrial chain.

The Development Trend of China Printing Industry Market

Printing industry is one of the important industrial categories in China, which has maintained a high-speed and sustained development. According to relevant data, in 200 1 year, there were 82 189 printing enterprises in China, with more than 3 million employees, and the total output value of the national printing industry reached1447.89 billion yuan. Among them, the packaging and printing industry accounts for a considerable proportion. For example, the number of enterprises is 20409, accounting for 12.83% of the total number of printing enterprises in China, and the number of employees exceeds 1 10,000, accounting for 33.33% of the total number of printing enterprises in China. The total output value reached more than 50 billion yuan, accounting for 34.53% of the total output value of the national printing industry.

Judging from the printing mode, China has changed from a single printing mode to a variety of printing modes, forming a printing industry system with complete categories and certain modern technology and equipment. For example, in packaging and printing enterprises, lithography (offset printing) accounts for 42%, letterpress printing accounts for 25%, gravure printing accounts for 19%, and there are 240 flexographic printing production lines, accounting for 7%, and other printing accounts for 7%.

Major changes in the printing industry

Printing industry has always been one of the most active industrial fields in China. With the continuous introduction of high-tech printing technology and equipment, China printing industry as a whole is approaching the technical level of developed countries. In recent years, after the adjustment of industrial structure, enterprise structure and product structure, China's printing industry has undergone some gratifying changes and formed some new characteristics and development trends.

Regional printing base has become a climate.

Guangdong and Shanghai continue to take the lead in the printing industry. In addition, Wenzhou, Cangnan, Zhongshan, Xiongxian, Sanhe, Langfang, Dongguan, Pudong, Anhui Tongcheng and other places have formed regional packaging and printing bases, and the printing industry has become a local pillar industry.

Private printing industry has developed rapidly.

The industrial structure dominated by state-owned enterprises is changing. The development of printing industry led by private capital has made gratifying achievements. At present, the annual output value of Wenzhou private printing and equipment enterprises is 654.38+0.8 billion yuan. Many private enterprises have passed the primitive accumulation period, and the development trend can not be ignored, such as Shanghai Jielong Group.

The printing industry began to operate capital.

In the past, the printing industry only relied on product competition to occupy the market and expand the influence of enterprises. Now, capital operation has surfaced. For example, at the beginning of 2002, Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd. and Shaanxi Huanggong Group Printing Machinery Co., Ltd., two major domestic printing machinery manufacturers, re-established the new Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd., which will give full play to Beiren's capital and technical advantages, realize complementary advantages, resist risks and promote development.

Foreign printing giants settled in China.

After China's entry into WTO, foreign printers have further accelerated their pace of settling in China. For example, donnelly Printing Company of the United States reached a cooperation agreement with enterprises affiliated to Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, with an initial investment of US$ 29.5 million to set up a printing enterprise in Qingpu Industrial Zone. In addition, the China Merchants Rotary Printing Center invested by China Merchants United Printing (HK) Co., Ltd. in Chun Hu Industrial Zone, Pinghu Town, Shenzhen has also been fully launched. The printing center is the largest production scale in China at present. Three machines are started at the same time, which can print 10 tons of coated paper every hour, reaching 50,000 tons a year.

The exhibition economy has made great progress.

In recent years, China has held a large number of printing and equipment exhibitions every year. Now the exhibition has developed from a comprehensive exhibition to a professional exhibition, such as the exhibition of specialized printing machinery, screen printing, rapid printing and printing equipment. In addition, the past exhibitions were concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, and now they are developing in the direction of regionalization, such as regional exhibitions in Xi' an and Chongqing. There are also some exhibitions held in printing bases, such as Wenzhou and Xiongxian Packaging and Printing Exhibition.

Small enterprises began to take the road of big alliance.

In the face of China's entry into WTO and the comprehensive entry of printing powers into China market, a group of farsighted small and medium-sized enterprises began to take the road of alliance in order to enhance their anti-risk ability. For example, Jingdezhen printing press, Weihai printing press, Changchun printing press and Yutian printing package have all formed a joint company. These printing presses are all medium-sized enterprises, and their products are highly complementary.

Other industries actively invest in the printing industry.

For example, China Aviation Technology Import and Export Corporation and People's Fine Arts Printing Factory jointly established Beijing American Airlines Rapid Printing Company; COSCO Industrial Co., Ltd. and COSCO (Hongkong) Industry and Trade Holding Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Corporation, jointly invested to establish Yuan Yi Printing Co., Ltd. ..

Development of Main Printing Equipment

The national breakdown statistics of printing equipment mainly include seven categories: news, publishing, printing writing paper, ink, PS plate, anodized, printing photosensitive film, printing blanket and printing cots. At present, the seven printing equipments in China are in the stage of steady development.

News, publishing, printing and writing paper

In recent years, China's output of paper and paperboard has ranked second in the world, but its per capita consumption is only 28kg, which is still far behind that of developed countries.

In recent two years, the export volume of coated paper and lightweight coated paper in China showed an upward trend. At present, middle and high-grade products account for 45%, and low-grade products account for 55%. The focus of the Tenth Five-Year Plan of China's paper industry is to develop middle and high-grade products and brand-name products. The expected goal is that in 2005, high-grade products will reach 60%, low-grade products will retreat to 40%, and the export volume will also increase.

printing ink

China ink has an annual production capacity of 250,000 tons, ranking fourth in the world. There are more than 300 professional ink production enterprises, including nearly 40 Sino-foreign joint ventures and Sino-foreign cooperative enterprises. In recent years, the introduction of foreign capital, advanced technology, equipment and management experience has promoted the development of China ink industry, narrowed the gap with developed countries, increased product output and improved quality, but there is still a gap compared with the international advanced level. One of the development goals of China ink industry is that by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the actual annual output will reach 240,000 tons, the export will reach 40,000 tons, and the foreign exchange will be 65.438+0.2 billion US dollars.

PS version

The domestic PS version belongs to the middle and low-grade products in the international market. Over the years, the domestic PS version export market has been the first in Asia. At present, the market share of PS version in Asia accounts for about 25% of the total global sales, and world-famous brands are all sold in Asia, among which Japanese products have the largest share. Hongkong, Taiwan Province Province, South Korea, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are Asian countries and regions where PS version is widely used. It is worth paying attention to the Russian market. At present, Russian mainly uses European PS version, which is considered as a potential market for China PS version export.

anodised aluminium

Domestic anodized, mostly low-grade products. In recent years, some domestic manufacturers have also introduced a full set of foreign advanced equipment, adopted foreign advanced technology and produced some middle and high-grade products with imported materials. The main export destinations of anodic oxidation products are the United States, Western Europe, Australia, Malaysia, India, the Middle East and other countries and regions.

Printed photosensitive film

Printing photosensitive rubber sheet is a high-tech product. For many years, the international market has been monopolized by Kodak, Agfa and Fuji. China's products can be exported in recent years, which is the result of manufacturers' efforts. As the largest research and production base of printing photosensitive materials in China, Offset Printing Factory No.2 has been able to produce various types of printing films through the combination of research and development and technical transformation for many years, and the quality of some products is equivalent to that of similar products abroad.

Lithographic felt

In printing blanket, offset blanket is the most widely used. Printed blankets produced in China are also exported, most of which are air-cushion blankets, accounting for 93.3% of the total export volume.

Printing cots

At present, most of the printing cots in China are small and medium-sized enterprises, and most of them are middle and low-grade products. Recently, Shanghai Baochi Chunlei Cots Co., Ltd. produced a series of high-grade printing cots by using the compound of Jomac Company of the United States and introducing advanced Japanese manufacturing technology, which will undoubtedly increase the competitiveness of China printing cots in the international market.

The development direction of printing technology

The rapid development of modern high-tech such as information technology, network technology, digital technology and automation technology has not only fundamentally transformed, broadened and developed printing technology, but also profoundly changed the traditional printing industry, effectively promoted and broadened the progress and development of the whole printing industry, and even profoundly changed the traditional management methods and concepts.

In developed countries and regions, the traditional printing industry has undergone tremendous changes and qualitative leaps under the impact of contemporary digital technology and computer network technology. The general development trend is that the printing industry is transforming into a unique industry with the dual nature of "manufacturing industry" and "information industry", and is constantly strengthening the image of "information exchange industry". With this change, the printing industry is not limited to the information processing industry, but also extended to the fields of information intermediary industry and information publishing industry.

From now until 20 10 years ago, China printing industry will vigorously develop direct plate making and direct printing, and gradually develop into digital printing technology while improving the quality of traditional printed matter.

Developing digital prepress technology

In the next decade, with the continuous development of computer and information dissemination technology, digital processing and transmission technology in prepress field (including color desktop system, computer-to-plate printing, computer-to-printing machine, computer-to-paper printing, computer-to-digital proofing, etc.). ) will develop rapidly.

Its specific development goals are: the popularization and application of high-precision and high-performance digital cameras and input scanners; Preliminary popularization and application of direct plate making; Digital proofing technology and equipment have been popularized and popularized; Improve and meet the requirements of integration, openness, compatibility and flexible upgrade of hardware equipment system.

Developing efficient multi-color printing machine

"Multicolor" means that printing machines such as offset printing, flexography and gravure printing should focus on developing polychromatic machines.

"High efficiency" means high productivity and efficiency under the condition of meeting the quality requirements.

Improving the quality of post-press equipment

Exquisite post-press automation refers to improving the quality of post-press processing equipment, developing large-format, high-speed, high-precision, multifunctional and fully automatic post-press processing equipment and exquisite post-press processing products. Although the domestic post-press processing equipment has made remarkable progress in recent ten years, there is still a big gap compared with the world advanced level. Mainly in the post-press processing technology is relatively simple, and the working performance and automation of the equipment need to be improved; The automatic detection and control technology of equipment stability, reliability and quality is basically blank.

Developing Serialized Printing Equipment

Although China's printing equipment industry has developed rapidly, most of the printing equipment can basically meet the needs of the development of the printing industry in terms of variety and quantity, but compared with developed countries, there is still a significant gap in quality and stability. Therefore, the development direction and focus in the next decade is to improve quality and increase varieties (serialization) to meet the needs of printing technology progress.

Changing trend of printing market

The printing market is also changing. Reducing printing batch and shortening delivery cycle is the mainstream of the future development of printing industry. Digital printing will also affect traditional printing methods in many ways.

Changes in book printing market

There are more and more kinds of books and periodicals, fewer and fewer books are printed, and the hot spots of book sales are shifting faster and faster, which requires the printing cycle of books and periodicals to be shorter and shorter. In the next few years, the short edition of China book printing will account for 60% of the whole book printing. This change makes it possible to print on demand using digital printing equipment and technology. The popularization of printing on demand will also significantly reduce the inventory of publishing houses and further accelerate the book publishing cycle.

Changes in bill printing market

With the deepening of reform, various bills in China are becoming more and more personalized. Telecommunications, postal services, banks, securities, insurance, various tickets, public utilities and other personalized printing markets have great potential, and digital printing machines and technologies that can realize personalized and variable data printing will be very popular.

Changes of Anti-counterfeiting Printing Market

In anti-counterfeiting printing, there are many ways to realize variable data such as three-dimensional bar code, and the variable data must be completed by digital printing technology and equipment. Digital printing also has great potential in the anti-counterfeiting printing market.

Changes in the commercial printing market

In recent years, the proportion of commercial printing in the whole printing industry is increasing year by year, and the proportion of short version printing, personalized printing, ultra-short version commercial printing and variable data printing is also increasing. For example, exhibition samples, colorful business cards, various recipes, certificates and other products are very suitable for digital printing equipment printing, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in commercial printing.

Changes in packaging and printing market

Digital printing has been applied to packaging and label design and production system, which is specially used to make product labels of various brands of alcohol, food, beverage and other products. Digital technology is also playing an increasingly important role in flexible packaging printing. Digital technology enables packaging label printers to pass through computer-to-plate, thus eliminating the film in prepress processing. With the continuous development of digital printing technology and its combination with processing function, printing plate will be eliminated from online label production together with film.

Changes in the Rapid Printing Market

The rapid development of digital technology will provide a huge market for rapid printing. The equipment and technology of digital printing and digital proofing will probably replace the traditional small offset printing in the express printing industry at first. Using network transmission technology and digital printing machine, the office efficiency will be greatly improved, and digital printing will soon extend its tentacles to on-demand printing, short edition printing and rapid printing in business, publishing and other fields.

Generally speaking, the future development of printing industry in China will focus on specialized operation and large-scale production according to market demand, improve labor productivity and equipment utilization rate, prevent small, comprehensive and low-level duplication and replication, and enable enterprises to improve market competitiveness with high-tech starting point, high-grade quality, high efficiency and high added value content.