Heidelberg Druckmaschinen’s most recent Print Media Industry Climate Report indicates the packaging and label printing sector has been “very” stable in the present Covid-19 pandemic period.
The printing press giant has allowed public access to its weekly report for the first time. The Print Media Industry Climate Report provides updates on the development of print volumes in the packaging and label printing and commercial printing market segments.
The report is drawn from anonymised data from approximately 5000 selected offset presses of all format classes at customers worldwide who are connected to the Heidelberg Cloud. The current data for about 50 countries per segment is determined from this and displayed on a world map (see below).
The colours shown on the country map are indicators of how the estimated current production in print shops is compared to the previous year. The scale ranges from 1 (serious impact of Covid-19 on production) to 8 (production above last year's level), with 7 representing production at last year's level.
The report said the packaging and the label segment has been very stable during the pandemic period, mainly due to the increasing demand for food and pharmaceutical packaging. Nevertheless, local supply problems such as the discontinuation of paper production in India are having a negative impact on this segment in some countries.
Print production in China fell by up to 80 per cent in the pandemic period, compared to normal volumes. But it recovered as the infection curve fell and is now back to last year's levels in both the commercial and the packaging/label segments.
While print production in all other countries was stable until mid-March 2020 and was above the level of previous years, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown in the countries has led to a significant reduction in print volume worldwide, especially in the commercial market.
"With the Print Media Industry Climate Report, we have our finger on the pulse of our customers," Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer said.
“The weekly climate in the print industry was developed to support print shops during the corona pandemic in particular. It is important for all participants in the printing industry to understand which market segments and countries are currently most affected.”
Hundsdörfer said the basis for this added value is the extensive data pool of our cloud, to which almost all newly delivered presses are connected.
“We publish this information without access restrictions in order to set an example for the industry and are happy to exchange information with printing associations and partners worldwide,” he said. “Together we are mastering this crisis.”
Heidelberg said its estimates provide a timely representative picture of the current state of the print media industry and indicate where priorities and efforts are needed to support those involved in the industry.
