Printing Branch, part of Gansu Daily Newspaper Group, has been using Q.I. Press Controls’ (QIPC) automatic color register system mRC-3D for over a year. The Chinese printing company is pleased with the speed, stability, and efficiency gains that the automation of the Dutch specialist for the printing industry has yielded for their production process.
Price winning printing group
The investment in new press automation, in 2019, of Printing Branch, was part of a large-scale modernization within the company. Printing Branch combines newspaper and commercial book printing and is the largest newspaper printer in the northwestern provinces of China. It currently prints more than 60 newspapers and magazine titles, including People’s Daily, Gansu Daily, Global Times, and Lanzhou Morning News. The group has already received several awards for the high quality of their printing. “We focus on our customers, consider green development important and give priority to quality,” explains Lan Ning, deputy manager of Printing Branch, choosing QIPC. “We constantly make our employees aware of the importance of quality and environmental protection and consider it important with our partners”.
Speed, stability, efficiency
Printing Branch now has four QIPC installations at its disposal, one on a 2010 Goss Magnum 45 press, one on a 2015 Goss Magnum 45 press, and two on a 2019 Goss CC system. “Thanks to QIPC’s continuous investment in new technology, the system is very user-friendly,” says Lan Ning. “The advantages of the mRC-3D system are the speed with which everything works, the stability and the reliability. In addition, we can work more efficiently and the workload of the operators has been reduced”.
Chinese market
QIPC remains very active in the Chinese market. The local head office was replaced by intensive cooperation with local agents such as Gämmerler, an agent who knows the Chinese market and all its needs through and through. The order placed by Printing Branch more than a year ago was the first success of that collaboration. “We still see a lot of potential in the Chinese market,” says Erwin van Rossem, director of Global Sales & Marketing at QIPC. “So we remain active there, even in this challenging period. We see the positive feedback from Printing Branch as encouragement.
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.
