Mumbai based Exim India publishes a daily newspaper Exim Newsletter, as well as the daily Shipping Times and The Link. Exim Newsletter contains news, views and reviews related to shipping, ports, maritime trade, imports and exports in India and abroad. Published and printed five days a week, Monday to Friday, from Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Ahmedabad, with Mumbai churning out close to 50% of total circulation. The Shipping Times is published daily from the port cities of Chennai, Kochi, Tuticorin and Kolkata. The Link is a weekly journal dedicated to coverage of cargo, aviation and logistical sectors.
The printing press in Mumbai, which is the main printing hub for the publication, is located at Andheri and is spread over 4,000 square feet. Apart from printing its own industry publications, the press also produces commercial work such as magazines, diaries and promotional items. About 70% of the work consists of printing the daily newsletters while the remaining capacity is utilized for commercial work. However in addition to the Mumbai press, the Ahmedabad print unit has started taking up outside commercial work in the past year.
Strengthening the postpress section in Mumbai
The Mumbai printing plant in recent months has seen some new equipment being added to the finishing and binding department. A sewing machine from Robertson Machinery was installed along with a creasing machine from Patel Engineering and a 2-head wire stitching machine from Webs.
“We last invested in the Mumbai plant’s post-press department almost two years back so it was time to further strengthen it. We felt the need for a sewing machine and also looked at few global brands at drupa last year. However, we settled for Robertson,” says Nayan Bhatt, technical manager of the Mumbai press.
The new machines will sit along with two postpress machines installed a couple of years ago — a Welbound Diploma folder and a Welbound perfect binding machine and a pair of Polar cutting machines. In the pressroom there are three Heidelberg sheetfed offset presses — a 4-color, a 2- color and a single color. The prepress department contains a Heidelberg Suprasetter CtP system.
Bhatt says that plans are afoot to further enhance the post-press section in Mumbai. A lamination machine is expected to arrive in another two months as negotiations are on with two Indian companies. Once the lamination machine is installed, a hardcover binding machine will be added.
Konica Minolta digital press
Last year, the Mumbai unit also added its first digital press, a Konica Minolta C6000. This press is used for pre-press proofing as well as printing short run jobs mainly related to conferences and events that Exim Group organizes. “The Exim Group is also a prominent organizer of conferences, exhibitions and other events, under the banner of Fairplay Exposition Group. We use the Konica Minolta to print conference promotional items like flyers, posters and programs.” says Bhatt.
Packaging printing at Ahmedabad
Apart from Mumbai, in Ahmedabad Exim’s plant has double-color and single color Heidelberg presses and a Polar cutting machine. The Ahmedabad plant recently started doing commercial printing work, mainly of promotional flyers and leaflets. Soon, it will start printing packaging materials such as cartons for pharmaceutical companies.
“We are looking to install a 4-color offset press this year at Ahmedabad which will mainly used for packaging printing jobs. There are lot of small pharmaceutical firms in Gujarat and we are focusing on them. In fact, we have already started talks with a couple of them. As to which brand of offset press we will buy, that has not been decided yet. It could be any of the leading brands such as Heidelberg, Ryobi or Komori,” says Bhatt.
