Indian companies participated actively at FESPA 2019.
Navratan Specialty Chemicals from Ahmedabad had a stand with flex banners, foam board, digital inks and knitted fabric. The company told us that it has calendar machines with widths of up to 6 meters, warp knitting machines with widths of up to 6.8 meters, and foam board and cold and hot lamination machines for the production of these.
Colorjet India from Noida showcased two digital printers, the 3.2 meters wide Softjet for aqueous inks on polyester-based fabrics, and the TXF with Epson printheads for sampling and short runs, which can print at speeds of around 24 square meters an hour on any type of fabric including polyester, cotton, silk, viscose, rayon and wool.
Excel Plastics, a Jain Irrigation company from Jalgaon with a manufacturing plant in Co-Monagan, Ireland, presented its line of PVC Foam, PVC Integral Foam and PVC Solid Sheets.
Global Nona Tech from Ahmedabad, part of the Choksi Exports group of companies, presented the organic pigment dispersions and additives the company produces for ink manufacturers such as Epple, Sakata Inx, Siegwerk, Sun Chemical, and Toyo, including its pigmented water-based preparations for digital inks for textiles, flexible packaging, and gel and roller-ball pens.
The next combined Fespa Global Print Expo and European Sign Expo will be held from 24-27 March 2020 in Madrid, and 18-21 May 2021 in Munich.
Ron Augustin is the European editor of Indian Printer and Publisher and Packaging South Asia.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
