The latest drupa survey has found that printers around the world are increasingly optimistic about the year ahead.
The latest drupa survey has found that printers around the world are increasingly optimistic about the year ahead.
The 3rd drupa Global Trends report found that although recovery from the financial crisis in 2008 is incomplete and uneven, printers everywhere are increasingly optimistic about their prospects throughout 2016, despite tightening margins and falling prices. This is influencing their plans for investment in production equipment.
Researchers surveyed 750 printers from around the world about the state of the printing industry and expectations for the future.
“The previous report in 2015 was upbeat in general, globally,” said Richard Gray of market research company Print Future. “In 2016, the picture is patchier, with some regions thriving, such as North America, others are struggling, including some of the developing regions. Similarly, whilst packaging and functional markets are in general doing well, those in the commercial market are more challenged and those in the publishing market particularly so."
…the biggest increases in positive feelings are in Africa, Australia/Oceania, Middle East and Asia. Taken by sector, all the 2016 forecasts are more optimistic on balance, with commercial and functional (sometimes called industrial) printing showing the greatest increase compared to 2015.
The report found that while digital print is growing, conventional processes still dominate the industry.
Looking at some 14 common print processes, the report found that, as might be expected, digital technologies are growing fastest (on average by 28% per annum), but that sheet fed offset lithography is also seeing significant growth, particularly in publishing (net positive growth of 7%) and packaging (+12%). Flexography is also doing very well in packaging (+18%), and gravure is also seeing a modest but definite growth (+3%) in this sector. Functional printing is a growth area for screen printing (+11%), though digital is very important here too.
While the bulk of turnover still comes from conventional print, there is a steady increase in the volume and value of digital print, with the exception of packaging where only 13% reported that it represents more than 25% of turnover, compared to 35% for commercial, 24% for publishing and 59% for functional. The ability of digital to print variable content is important, with 59% of functional printers and 35% of commercial printers reporting that more than 25% of their digital turnover was variable.
Web to print seems to have stalled, with only a percentage point of growth from 2014 (25% of printers had it) to 2015 (26%).
The full report will be released in English in a few weeks; the Executive Summary will be available in seven languages (German, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Chinese) at www.drupa.com.
