Heidelberg has released its Print Media Industry Climate Report, a study that has observed the global print industry through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main findings of the report identified that print production in China fell by up to 80 per cent during the pandemic, but packaging and label segment remained stable.
However, it mentioned that even though print production in China fell by up to 80 per cent compared to normal volumes, 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.
During the pandemic period, the packaging and the label segment was found to be “very stable”, mainly due to the increasing demand for food and pharmaceutical packaging. Nevertheless, local supply problems such as the discontinuation of paper production in India had a negative impact on this segment in some countries.
The Heidelberg report also identified that while print production in all other countries was stable until mid-March and was above the level of previous years, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown in countries led to a “significant reduction” in print volume worldwide, especially in the commercial market.
The representative basis of the anonymised data was formed by around 5,000 selected offset presses of all format classes at Heidelberg customers worldwide that are connected to the Heidelberg Cloud.
The current data is for around 50 countries per segment.
“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.
“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. Together we are mastering this crisis.”
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