From left to right - Martin Schreer (managing director at Mitsubishi HiTec Paper), Andreas Jastrzembowski (managing director at Mitsubishi HiTec Paper), Svenja Schulze (environment minister), Dirk Hansmeier (chairman of the Works Council Mitsubishi HiTec Paper), Wiebke Esdar (member of the German Bundestag)
On 17 September, Svenja Schulze, minister for the environment, nature conservation, and nuclear safety and Wiebke Esdar, member of the German Bundestag, visited the Bielefeld mill of the specialty paper manufacturer Mitsubishi HiTec Paper. The two SPD politicians got an on-the-spot picture of the current and future planned climate policy challenges for an energy-intensive company.
Schulze and Esdar’s visit to Mitsubishi paper machine 3
Ideas on topics such as emission certificates, electricity and gas prices, and Bielefeld as an important industrial location were exchanged with the Mitsubishi HiTec Papermanaging directors Martin Schreer and Andreas Jastrzembowski and the Works Council chairman Dirk Hansmeier, in an open atmosphere. A tour of the mill, including paper machine 3, rounded off the visit program.
“We would like to thank environment minister Schulze and Esdar for their visit and their keen interest in the problems that are becoming more and more pressing for energy-intensive industrial companies like ours in the face of climate policy,” says Martin Schreer, “because economical manufacturing must continue to be possible in Germany despite the continued rise in CO2 prices.”
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.
