Printing Industry White Paper: China's Printing Industry Development (2012)

[ppzhan abstract] Recently, the printing industry white paper "China's Printing Industry Development (2012)" was released at the national printing and replication demonstration enterprises and green printing training class, providing a brief analysis of the current status, characteristics and problems of the printing industry.

Recently, the printing industry white paper "China's Printing Industry Development (2012)" was released at the national printing and replication demonstration enterprises and green printing training class, providing a brief analysis of the current status, characteristics and problems of the printing industry. The white paper shows that, by the end of 2011, there were 102,484 printing enterprises of various types nationwide, down 1.8% year on year; 3.5667 million employees, down 2.7% year on year; total printing output value of 867.713 billion yuan, up 12.59% year on year; total assets of 925.666 billion yuan, up 9.96% year on year; total profits of 73.987 billion yuan, up 8.31% year on year; and foreign processing trade volume of 68.009 billion yuan, up 2.9% year on year.

The white paper shows that China's printing industry displayed six characteristics in its development in 2011.

First, the printing industry continued to maintain a relatively high growth rate. In 2011, China's total printing output value reached 867.71 billion yuan, up 12.6% year on year, higher than the 9.3% growth rate of the national economy over the same period, with its overall scale approaching second place. At the same time, the total assets of the entire industry grew by 10% and total profits by 8.3%, while the number of enterprises fell by 1.8% and the number of employees by 2.7%. Despite declines in both the number of enterprises and employees, total output value and total profits still kept growing. This shows that the degree of intensification in China's printing industry is gradually increasing.

Second, the performance of above-scale enterprises improved substantially. In 2011, there were 2,439 key printing enterprises above designated size nationwide, accounting for 2.4% of the industry total; their total output value reached 439.69 billion yuan, accounting for 50.7% of the industry's total output value, up 4 percentage points from the previous year. The rapid growth in the number of key printing enterprises above designated size and their continuously rising share of the industry's total output value show that, driven by various structural adjustment policies and measures, the overall strength of key printing enterprises above designated size has been steadily enhanced, and they have grown into the main force in the development of China's printing industry.

Third, regions such as the Yangtze River Delta enjoy obvious comparative advantages. For many years, the Pearl River Delta has been one of China's developed printing regions, with its total printing output value accounting for nearly 20% of the national total and its foreign processing trade consistently accounting for more than 70% of the national total. Affected by factors such as slowing economic growth, exchange rate changes and rising labor costs, Guangdong's foreign processing trade in printing declined by nearly 17% in 2011. At the same time, however, foreign processing trade in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Fujian and other places grew rapidly. Shanghai's foreign processing trade in printing reached 6.96 billion yuan, up 50.5%, and Jiangsu's reached 8.07 billion yuan, up 46.2%, which drove the national total of foreign processing trade up 2.9% in 2011. This indicates that China's foreign processing trade in printing has begun to shift from being concentrated in the Pearl River Delta to joint development across both the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.

Fourth, important results have been achieved in the implementation of green printing. Over the past two years, the implementation of green printing has achieved important phased results in promoting energy conservation and emissions reduction, adjusting the industrial structure and benefiting people's livelihoods. It is estimated that, as a result of implementing various environmental protection measures, printing enterprises have reduced their comprehensive energy and material costs by about 500 million yuan each year; emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) have been cut by about 1.5% of total emissions each year; green printing certified enterprises (more than 160) currently account for only 0.15% of the national total, yet their output value accounts for 4.5% of the entire industry; and in 2012, more than 1,000 titles and 200 million copies of autumn textbooks for primary and secondary schools were printed using green printing, so that more than half of the country's primary and secondary school students have at least one green-printed textbook each.

Fifth, digital printing has achieved sustained rapid growth. In 2011, there were 799 digital printing enterprises nationwide, with an output value of 3.974 billion yuan, accounting for 0.46% of the total output value of the printing industry. Among them, 144 were dedicated digital printing enterprises, with an output value of 1.151 billion yuan; and 655 were enterprises also engaged in digital printing, with an output value of 2.823 billion yuan. The number of production digital printing presses installed was 2,145 units. This shows that the development of digital printing is currently driven mainly by traditional printing enterprises, and that digital printing still has broad room for development.

Sixth, the clustering effect of printing parks is notable. At present, 16 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have built a total of 66 printing parks, with total investment of RMB 21.27 billion, housing 964 printing enterprises, accounting for 0.94% of the national total, and total printing output value of RMB 25.9 billion, accounting for 3% of the industry's total output value. The parks' total output value growth rate was 19.2%, far higher than the industry average, demonstrating an obvious industrial cluster effect and development role. In particular, the Shanghai Jinshan National Green Creative Printing Demonstration Park has developed rapidly, with total output value increasing from RMB 280 million in 2010 to RMB 650 million in 2011, a 2.3-fold increase, and it is still growing rapidly.

The white paper pointed out the current problems in the printing industry: first, the degree of intensification is relatively low and core competitiveness is lacking; second, investment in independent innovation is insufficient and the potential for quality improvement needs to be enhanced. To this end, the white paper also put forward development recommendations: first, accelerate the implementation of green printing and vigorously adjust the structure; second, cultivate advantageous backbone enterprises and increase competitiveness; third, increase investment in innovation and upgrading to promote transformation and upgrading; fourth, improve industry supervision and management to create a healthy environment.

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361985.html