The latest drupa Global Trends Report says the global print industry is in a stable condition, with North America reporting strong growth while Europe and Australia/Oceania enjoyed steady growth. Over 600 printers and 200 suppliers participated in the 6th annual drupa survey.
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| The road ahead (photo: drupa) |
The report says 40% of printers stated their company economic condition was good in 2018 versus 13% who described their condition as poor, the rest were satisfactory. This gives a positive net balance of 27%. For Suppliers the positive net balance was 19%. Both groups remain optimistic with about 50% expecting things to be better in 2019.
For printers, finishing equipment was the most common target in 2019, followed by print technology then PrePress/Workflow/MIS.
Conditions varied between regions and between markets. North America continued to enjoy strong growth in 2018, Europe and Australia/Oceania enjoyed steady growth, whilst Asia, the Middle East and S/C America were cautious and Africa was in decline. The 2018 results reflect the established pattern in most regions, although the decline in the Middle East and S/C America appears to be worsening.
The Packaging market thrives as does Functional, but there are clear signs of increasing caution in the Commercial market and Publishing remains subdued, with the encouraging exception of the books market.
“The report shows that with a little more than a year to go to drupa 2020, the global industry is in robust health overall,” said Sabine Geldermann, director drupa, Messe Duesseldorf. “Clearly, there are significant differences in prospects across different regions and markets as demand rapidly changes with economic conditions and evolving uses of print. That is the real value of this drupa Global Trends series. It allows readers to track those trends over time and identify how printers and suppliers alike can best invest to secure a strong future within the industry.”
The findings come from the 6th major annual survey issued last autumn to the drupa Expert Panel of senior decision takers recruited from printers and exhibitors at drupa 2016 and run by Printfuture (UK) and Wissler & Partner (CH).
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| drupa Printer Barometer of economic confidence 2019 |
“Most panel members are positive overall about the future, despite very clear concerns about the economic and political prospects for 2019 and beyond,” said Richard Gray, operations director at Printfuture. “It is striking that many show an increasingly confident grasp of how to exploit the rapidly changing opportunities for print, as the wider markets make increased use of digital communications.”
The report said: “Most printers make money despite huge pressure on margins by increasing revenues through raising utilisation while keeping overheads as stable as possible. Globally we even saw a small increase in prices, despite substantial increases in paper/substrate prices. Suppliers also saw revenues and prices rise globally but with an even sharper decline in margins.”
Conventional print volumes continue to decline but slowly. In 2013, 23% of printers reported that Digital print was more than 25% of turnover. In 2018, the proportion of printers had increased to 29%. Sheetfed offset remains the most common form of print technology, present in 66% of all printers. Sheetfed offset volume continues to grow in Packaging but there was a clear decline amongst Commercial printers for the first time.
“With regard to conventional print, run lengths and lead times have been slumping continuously whilst the number of jobs continues to climb,” said a drupa blog. “For digital print, run lengths increase, lead times decline and the number of jobs rises inexorably. Yet the proportion of turnover that is digitally printed is slowly changing. 23% of the printers reported digital print to be responsible for more than 25% of turnover in 2013, rising to 29% in 2018.”
Web to Print volumes are climbing, but slowly. In 2014, 17% of participants with W2P installations reported more than 25% of turnover came from that source. By 2018, that proportion of participants had increased to 23%. Yet the proportion of printers with W2P installations is static – 25% in 2014 and 25% in 2018.
In terms of Capital Expenditure, 41% of printers spent more in 2018 than 2017, while just 15% spent less and expenditure grew in all regions except Africa. Those in Packaging and Functional markets were bullish while those in Commercial and Publishing markets were more cautious. It was broadly the same pattern amongst Suppliers.
The executive summary of drupa Global Trends Report 2019 is available here.
The full version of the report can be purchased for 249 Euros from drupa.
