News |
|
Study Finds Sheetfed Under Threat |
 |
 |
|
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 |
Pira International, a consultancy group based in the UK, estimates the global market for sheetfed litho printing will fall from US$155.7 billion in 2006 to US$142.7 billion in 2014, which represents a decrease of around 8.5 percent. The findings are part of a $6,500 report called The Future of Sheetfed Printing in a Digital Age, which specifically looks at global demand for sheetfed printing from 2006 to 2014 and emerging technologies and market drivers that will define this future.
According to the study, worldwide sheetfed print sales amounted to almost $146 billion (all funds in U.S. dollars) in 2009. Pira believes this measure of sheetfed print sales peaked around 2006 at $155.7 billion. The group estimates there will be a drop in printed area from 2008 to 2011, as expected under the current economic environment, but that growth will then occur until 2013 when volumes again should peak (as illustrated in the accompanying Pira chart).
In terms of technology trends, Pira finds that offset press suppliers are concentrating on areas like multi-unit perfectors to boost press productivity, as well as larger format machines and a great emphasis on environmental performance improvements for the manufacture and operation of equipment. Internal press developments are focusing on the automation of side-lay control, new ink supply technology, automatic plate loading, cylinder and ink-train washing, and fount-solution control. Pira also points to the growing influence of new suppliers from low-cost regions, in particular China and India, who produce low-cost, low-spec presses with few electronic controls.
Pira finds there is a lot of R&D being put into re-imageable plate or cylinder technologies, such as the use switch-able polymers and magnetographic surfaces being pushed by new startups like NovaWrite. The report also looks heavily at the growth of inkjet imaging.
|
