The global printing machinery market is showing a steady expansion trend, and China’s printing machinery industry is also constantly developing and progressing, and is in a critical period of transformation and upgrading. Intelligence, digitalization, and greening have become the core directions of its development.
Printing machinery is a general term for various types of special equipment that transfer text, images and other information with ink to paper and other substrates through printing plates. Its core function is to realize batch copying of graphics and text. It is widely used in publishing, packaging, advertising, textile and other fields. It is the core equipment supporting the development of the modern printing industry.
According to printing technology, it can be divided into two categories: modern plate printing presses and digital printing presses; according to the application of the terminal market, it can be divided into pre-press equipment, in-print equipment and post-press equipment.
The production and operation of printing machinery cannot be separated from the support of a complete industrial chain.
The upstream part of the industrial chain is suppliers of raw materials, parts and technology. Raw materials include steel, copper, aluminum, zinc, etc., and parts include bearings, gears, motors, chains, etc. Technology suppliers provide advanced manufacturing technology, automation control technology, digital printing technology, etc.
The middle reaches of the industrial chain are printing machinery manufacturers and system integrators, responsible for the research and development, production, assembly and integration of equipment.
There are a wide range of application scenarios in the downstream of the industrial chain, covering the packaging and printing industry, news and communication industry, advertising media and digital imaging. The development of downstream industries directly drives the growth in demand for printing machinery.
The global printing machinery market continues to expand thanks to the steady development of the downstream packaging and printing market.
The total value of the global packaging and printing market will reach US$512 billion in 2024, and will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.3%. It is expected to reach US$695 billion in 2029.
The global printing machinery market will be US$23.9 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to US$38.6 billion by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.45% from 2024 to 2033. The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest market, accounting for approximately 38%.
Focusing on China, my country’s printing machinery industry started late but developed rapidly.
In recent years, with the rapid development of science and technology, printing equipment has been continuously innovated and improved, and more and more advanced technologies have been applied in the printing machinery manufacturing industry, promoting the progress of the industry.
At the same time, the vigorous development of the printing industry has also driven the upstream printing machinery manufacturing industry to accelerate.
The market size of my country’s printing industry will be 1.47 trillion yuan in 2023, with a compound growth rate of 3.12% from 2019 to 2023. Assuming that it continues to grow at a compound growth rate of 3.12% from 2023 to 2029, the market size of my country’s printing industry will reach 1.77 trillion yuan in 2029.
After decades of development, my country’s printing machinery industry has achieved three core changes. Today, China’s printing and printing machinery output value ranks among the top in the world. Except for some high-end equipment, it has basically met domestic demand and achieved batch exports.
In recent years, the export scale of my country’s printing machinery has continued to expand, and the trade surplus has been increasing year by year, which shows that the international competitiveness of my country’s printing machinery is constantly increasing.
From the perspective of product segmentation, the three major types of equipment, pre-press, in-press and post-press, all achieved trade surplus, and the balanced development of the industry was further highlighted.
Currently, my country’s printing machinery industry is in a period of deep transformation and upgrading, with intelligence, digitalization, and greenness becoming the core development lines.
In terms of intelligence, intelligent manufacturing can improve production efficiency and flexibility and reduce costs. In the future, printing and packaging equipment will continue to evolve in the direction of automation, digitization, and intelligence.
In terms of digitization, digital printing has rapidly penetrated into many fields with its advantages, and the hybrid printing model that integrates traditional printing and digital printing has become the mainstream of the market.
In terms of greening, driven by the “double carbon” goal and environmental protection policies, green printing has become an inevitable trend, and environmentally friendly technologies are increasingly widely used.
In the future, printing machinery manufacturers will break through the positioning restrictions of a single equipment supplier and upgrade to a comprehensive “intelligent manufacturing” solution service provider. They will enhance their core competitiveness by providing full-chain services, building smart factories, and achieving deep integration of software and hardware.
