At the beginning of January 2024, Provin Technos, the Indian distributor of RMGT and Miyakoshi presses, announced several deals in its order book that are expected to be installed in the calendar year. Provin states that orders for 16 RMGT sheetfed offset presses and three Miyakoshi web-fed presses (two digital and one offset) are scheduled for installation at regular intervals in the coming year. Although some installations will take place before the end of March, we expect that most of these installations will take place after 1 April 2024.
The Indian press distributor says the calendar year 2023 saw the steady recovery of the print market although it has at the same time been accompanied by challenges in terms of increasing prices and longer shipment times concerning new machines. It seems that the demand for RMGT machines is strong in Japan itself and also in North America.
Nevertheless, the steady recovery and growth of commercial printing in India especially in the book printing sector has compelled printers to expand their capacity which has led to the influx and demand for both new and used presses. According to Provin’s Akshay Kaushal, “The ongoing increase in the new machine prices and their very long shipment scenario 2023 has seen a significant inflow of preowned presses coming into the Indian market. At the same time, we were able to foresee the upcoming demand for capacity creation and were able to make a number of machines available to serve some part of this demand.”
The 16 RMGT press orders include 15 presses of the 36-inch 9 series in various configurations of 4-color, 5-color, 5-color plus coater, 6-color plus coater, and 8-color perfecter configurations. One 4-color offset press in the 31-inch size is also among the presses to be installed this year.
Apart from the sheetfed offset presses, Provin has announced the sale of two Miyakoshi webfed high-speed inkjet presses for short-run book production to leading book printers. The third Miyakoshi order is for the addition of multiple units to be added to a recently installed variable format webfed offset press.
Provin says it has several other announcements that it will be making in the coming months, most likely before drupa 2024.
