Demand for web offset presses is falling to unprecedented lows, with the global market for 2016 slumping to around €160m, a significant decrease on the previous year which was itself a record low of €220m.
Just a decade ago market leader manroland alone was selling €1bn worth of web presses, with the global market worth around double that. Sales of web presses from all the major manufacturers combined in 2016 were less than ten per cent of the 2007 figures.
The twin whammy of the GFC and the broad uptake of the internet which both happened around the same time have decimated orders for the big presses.
[Related: Blue Star in $12m heatset investment]
Orders from the US, which used to be the number one market for newspaper presses, have dried up as newspapers across the country have closed down as consumers have switched to mobile online consumption.
Australia is actually one of the best performing countries on a population pro rata basis, the new IPMG site at Warwick Farm and Franklin Web putting in new manroland heatset webs over the past three years, and Webstar is installing one later this year. Fairfax upgraded its presses in Ballarat and Richmond when it moved out of Chullora and Tullamarine three years ago although it didn’t put in any new lines. News Ltd has also been upgrading its press lines.
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