Print Asia@drupa

Indian paper industry growth and the price situation

2012-01-13T11:58:00.005+05:30

Turmoil in paper pricesThe paper industry is one of the rapidly growing industries in India. There are approximately 1000 paper mills in India in both organized and unorganized sectors. Of these 1000 paper mills, around 800 are in the organized sector and nearly 200 are in unorganized sector. According to our recent research, these mills on average are currently utilizing approximately 75% of

Polymer prices reduced twice in December

2011-12-30T14:04:00.001+05:30

The current economic slowdown has spurred the RBI to lower its GDP growth forecast for the financial year 2011-12 to 6.9%. While our company IppStar thinks that this is a premature downgrade for the GDP forecast, there are signs that the Indian industry’s high growth over the past three years is softening. The index of industrial production showed a sharp deceleration with a growth of only 2.79%

Tough times for web-offset manufacturers

2011-12-19T17:03:00.000+05:30

We have written in earlier years about the inevitable consolidation of the offset press manufacturers and particularly about the leading international manufacturers of high speed web offset presses. As we wrote after the last drupa in July 2008, “The top two manufacturers in the 70,000-plus-cph markets are manroland and KBA and our estimates put manroland ahead of KBA by about US$ 300 million

How can the packaging industry be greener?

2011-12-14T17:32:00.000+05:30

Vijay Gupta of Siegwerk India “Change management is always difficult, but industry has to lead, especially if there is no law that insists on change for the better.” – Vijay Gupta of Siegwerk India Mostly, most of us do not think. We tend to repeat cliches and slogans that put us in a helpless situation in which we are always waiting for the other guy (or the government) to do something.

Environment and Packaging

2011-12-14T11:34:00.000+05:30

The 'informal' recycling sector in India The environment discussion in India is in danger of not being a discussion at all. The government’s ban on plastic for gutkha packaging in March 2011 first of all mixed up the distinct health hazards of tobacco with the environmental hazards of the extensive use of plastic packaging without any clarity on its collection, disposal or recycling. Leave

Gearing up for drupa 2012

2011-12-12T18:20:00.006+05:30

As I write this, a presentation from the organisers of drupa 2012 is taking place in Bangalore. The Bangalore event today will be followed by a similar event tomorrow at the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, which will be covered by Indian Printer and Publisher. Both these events have already received massive registrations reflecting the importance of the event for the Indian print industry.

The smooth TechNova machine and the fragmented printing industry

2011-12-03T17:42:00.003+05:30

TechNova has filed an anti-dumping duty case against the import of Computer to Plate (CtP) or what are known as digital plates. This case is directed against both Chinese and Japanese manufactured CtP plates. TechNova essentially says that China is a non-market economy, its currency is undervalued and that it subsidises the plates manufactured not only by Chinese manufacturers in China but also

Japanese print industry ready for IGAS from 16 to 21 September 2011

2011-07-28T20:25:00.018+05:30

In the last six months we have been basking in the heat exuded by the continuous investment by India’s packaging industry entrepreneurs. The building of large purpose built plants outside the cities and the purchase of not

Commercial printers and digital print

2010-07-21T16:27:00.001+05:30

“We offset printers will have to install a digital press within the next few years come what may . . . The decision to go in for a digital solution is not one of choice — it is more of a compulsion” — Amit Tara, Tara Art PrintersSome of the vendors of digital presses may be frustrated by the slow pace of Indian commercial printers buying digital presses. It is true that to some extent commercial

The price of print

2010-06-24T17:51:00.003+05:30

I don’t remember reading an article as many times as I read the article by Sunita Paul ‘The birth and death of a small printing press’ — Indian Printer and Publisher, May 2010. This is something that I have thought about a million times and maybe more — it brings to mind what larger printers sometimes fearfully discuss — Where is this industry heading?I also often wonder if printers are expected

The opportunity and the challenge

2010-06-22T15:44:00.002+05:30

Ipex clearly showed three things: the rise of digital printing and decline of offset printing in most of the developed economies; the continuous increase in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America of both print consumption and the manufacture of printing equipment and consumables; and lastly, that trade shows in the developed markets need to change.Ipex was hardly over before many

Interesting times for print

2010-06-05T18:09:00.005+05:30

It’s been just a couple of days but it has been interesting. As the jet lag wears off and one starts to get a sense of what is on offer from the manufacturers that have mostly brought their stuff to the show it is clear that there is a huge competitiveness out there. For the big guys who have traditionally financed these shows and wined and dined printers to sell their expensive heavy metal

How many Indians will really go to Ipex next week?

2010-05-08T12:51:00.001+05:30

Eleven hundred Indians attended the last Ipex according to the organisers, IIR. Also according to the organisers more than 2,000 Indians have registered on-line for the fair this time. However on the basis of our talks with some of the printers and manufacturer’s Association’s that are involved in the group tours, it is expected that about 600 to 700 will attend the fair this time. Several of the

Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. – A J Leibling

2010-04-19T16:22:00.007+05:30

As I recall from a media debate in New Delhi a few years ago, Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook said, “Newspaper owners often have three ambitions: fame, power and wealth. However it is almost impossible for them to achieve all three – they must choose, and in my estimation at most they may achieve two out of these three ambitions.”There is righteousness and there is self-righteousness in every

A comment on the budget from the packaging industry

2010-03-04T15:57:00.002+05:30

A few months ago we met Sanjay Bhatia the MD of Hindustan Tin Works and today we have received his comments about the recent budget presented to the Indian parliament by the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee.Sanjay Bhatia, MD, Hindustan Tin Works and Rexam HTW is also the Chairman of the Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) and President of the Metal Can Manufacturers Association (MCMA). Mr.

Print Vs Digital media

2009-12-22T17:07:00.003+05:30

Great piece of advertisement used by Sun termed as "UK's best handheld in 40 years ".The video shows the value proposition of print in contrast to digital media, e-book readers and other gadgets.

Webinar discusses the slow growth of variable data printing

2009-12-11T10:44:00.003+05:30

“Just because this is a time of transformation doesn't mean that it's easy to sell transformational ideas. Economic uncertainty has reduced the audience for bold, grand rhetoric. Besides, even in boom times innovation is risky. Innovators often have to ease anxieties by sounding conservative while doing something radical.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter, in her 15 minute competitive advantage blog.I

Is digital printing really ready to take on offset in India?

2009-10-14T12:10:00.005+05:30

Digital printing is generally promoted as a solution for variable printing or short run printing. At least among the vendors, there is a strong belief that –“Smaller quantities are best printed on a digital press.” We did one of our quick studies on this issue by comparing the viability of printing short run books in runs from 50 to 500 using either conventional offset and new digital production

Anniversaries

2009-08-22T09:50:00.003+05:30

Last year was the 40th anniversary of some of the important events in Vietnam and also the 40th anniversary of important demonstrations, sit-ins and student occupations of college campus buildings in several countries -- as a part of the civil rights movement against racism and the anti-war movement. This summer brings the 40th anniversary of both the Woodstock music festival (I was also there)

This was the title of our first experimental blog

2009-08-21T18:23:00.003+05:30

To be honest I have been too ambitious over the past couple of years and instead of just blogging tried to set up a whole set of blogging systems. The whole thing became a project together with the project of renovating our several websites. As could be expected it became an endless struggle while blogging has become like personal computing -- personal. In the meanwhile Facebook has arrived and

Are we finally getting somewhere?

2009-08-19T18:42:00.000+05:30

There is an old Laurel and Hardy movie where the two protagonists are carrying luggage and trying to find their way out of a maze (a gazebo made of hedges). After a great deal of going back and forth and around one corner and another and they come to some kind of a signpost. We know they are hopelessly lost but one of them says, "Now we're finally getting somewhere!"This a bit like what I am

Bhupesh Trivedi on the upcoming Indian Magazine Congress

2008-09-03T16:24:00.000+05:30

I received this morning as an intro to the Indian Media Observer email newsletter number 53 (http://www.indianmediaobserver.com/):"IMO Commentary: A time to shake upI hope the forthcoming Indian Magazine Congress deliberates on this: While the overall readership in India has grown by 15 per cent, the number of print titles has grown by over 200 per cent. Please let me stretch it further - while

Publishing and cross media in Asia

2008-09-01T11:27:00.000+05:30

Publishing in Asia is dominated by its traditional forms, magazines, newspapers and books. Scholarly publishing which is an important part of this context, fabric, or culture is not exactly missing in large countries like India but deficient. While newspapers and magazines are booming, scholarly publishing is languishing. While newspapers and magazines are growing in the non-English languages and