Web press manufacturers feel the pinch

According to the latest market analyses, sales of new commercial and newspaper presses (not including used presses, service and consumables) in the supply industry fell to €630m in 2012, a drop of a whopping 70 per cent since the pre-GFC year of 2007.

Of this some €300m was spent on newspaper presses. This followed global sales of €1.7bn in 2007 and a low of €600m in the crisis year 2009, with a short-lived rise in 2010 to €800m.

Leading press manufacturer KBA is expecting a further decline in the total market to a new low of approximately €500m for 2013. The company then is assumes that yearly investments in new web offset technology will bottom out to approximately €400m by 2015, less than a quarter of the pre-GFC figure.

Newspaper press investment in the US, once the world’s biggest market, has collapsed to virtually nothing. China is now the biggest investor in web offset presses.

Against this background KBA CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann views previous reductions in capacity on the suppliers’ side as not yet satisfactory and in line with market developments.

In 2012 Koenig & Bauer (KBA) says it won almost 40 per cent of all contracts for new newspaper web presses awarded by the international newspaper industry, and this year it is more than 40 per cent. However it says its €300m market share is not enough to fill its already significantly reduced capacity.

He also says that given media developments, trends towards concentration and realignment in the newspaper industry, suppliers should be prepared for a continued moderate decline in investments in new offset presses, prepress and mailroom technology, rather than a significant recovery.

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