US lithography market share declines but there is still huge demand

Many people believe that with the development of the times, digital printing makes lithography even more precarious. However, a recent report from the National Printing Leaders Association (napl) shows that although the market share of lithographic printing continues to decline for 10 years, there is still a huge market demand. However, printers need to organically integrate different printing services to gain greater commercial benefits.

Who is buying? buy what?

According to the report of the American Printing Leaders Association, the lithographic market share has continued to decline for 10 years. “There is no sign of improvement. No matter how prosperous the economy is, this trend cannot be changed. However, the lithographic printing still has $40 billion to 500. Billion-dollar market," quoted one respondent as saying, “Anyone in the publishing industry who still sticks to old technology will eventually face the result of elimination.”

According to a study by the American Association of Printing Leaders, companies of different sizes have markedly different preferences in purchasing lithographic products. In companies with less than $1 million in sales, only 8.1% of companies plan to purchase monochrome or 2-color offset presses in the next 3 years, 4.8% of companies plan to purchase 4-color offset presses, and 25.8% plan to purchase. Digital presses.

Among the companies with sales between US$1 million and US$3 million, 16.1% of companies have included monochrome and two-color offset presses in their purchase plans, and 25.8% of companies are considering buying four-color offset presses. The number of companies considering buying digital presses accounted for 35.5%.

Among the companies with sales of US$3 million to US$5 million, the proportions of the three categories are 8.8% for monochrome/two-color offset printing presses, 20.6% for four-color offset printing presses, and 55.9% for digital printing presses.

It is noteworthy that in the above three types of companies, the demand for computer-to-plate (ctp) technology is very large, which shows that consumers are still concerned about the improvement of the lithographic workflow.

Of companies with sales of less than US$1 million, about 20% plan to purchase offline platesetters in the next 3 years. This is not an impulse decision, because 36.5% of companies said they have acquired the ability to purchase ctp in the past three years. Among the companies with sales of $1 million to $3 million, 68.8% of the companies plan or already have purchasing power. Of the companies with sales of 3 million to 5 million U.S. dollars, 69.4% plan or have purchased capacity.

Who is selling? What to sell?

Obviously, the drop in lithographic sales among small printers is inevitable. The sales volume of monochrome offset printing in franchisees decreased from 14.4% in 2000 to 3.8% in 2010, and the sales of multicolor offset printing decreased from 19.3% in 2000 to 12.8% in 2010. However, the sales volume of four-color offset printing increased from 4.3% to 6%. Together, the offset printing accounted for 22.6% of franchisee sales in 2010, totaling US$37 million.

Among the top 100 companies in Fast Printing magazine, sales of lithographic printing companies also declined, but they still reached 32.7% of total sales last year.

What now?

While lithographers are increasing the supply of midrange and large format printers, they are still offering small format printers. Contemporary automation and computer technology make small prints more efficient, better quality, and faster.

Heidelberg introduces the Printmasterqm46 and Speedmaster52lines products, and Liby Company supplies the 3200 series, 3300 series and 520 series products. Manroland has Roland50 products, and Shinohara has 52 series products. KBA's Geniusuv is a waterproof, small-format printer, and Presstek has two direct-imaging printers, the 34di and the 52di. Ryobi also has a small copy di press in the 3404di series. The earliest small-format printing press company, Presstek, still sells Abdick's 9980, 9920, 9995 and 4995 series. It is reported that Baumfolder, which has ceased manufacturing, still supplies Baumprint18 products.

What does it mean?

To some extent, people talk about which technology is more cutting-edge or which technology is declining. In fact, they have not grasped the key to the problem.

From the perspective of market segmentation, lithography is declining, digital printing is gradually emerging, and digital inkjet is becoming increasingly popular. However, these technologies are nothing more than a technique that leaves a symbol on paper. Almost all experts believe that the success of today's printing industry is much more than just leaving a symbol on paper.

The American Printing Leaders Association pointed out in the report the problems of all printers in the printing industry: “Many people think that the way to change the single supply model is to provide customers with a complete set of services—especially to adapt to individualized and accurate dissemination. And online application services, and incorporate them into their own value systems. However, those who pursue a one-stop value proposition also understand that in reality, if any new services provided by the merchant cannot be integrated with existing value propositions. , we can't create more value for our customers, nor can we achieve commercialization. It's better to provide only a single lithographic printing."

In other words, it doesn't matter what you produce or how you produce it. The important thing is whether the products and services you provide will make your customers valuable.