Nation’s printing industry at the crossroads

Despite achieving considerable growth, the HCM City printing industry faces numerous challenges that threaten to derail future growth, according to the Printing Association of HCM City.

The going was good for the industry from 1993 to 2008 when it grew at an average of 10-15 percent a year.

However, in 2009 the growth rate fell to 5 percent due to the global recession.

The association said the escalation in the cost of inputs, especially printing paper, in the last few years had increased printing costs, hitting demand. Besides, the growth of information technology and the digital media had come at the cost of the printing industry, it said, adding that the number of printed books, newspapers and magazines reduced by 20-30 percent in the last two years.

The printing of reference books and dictionaries is down by half.

Along with industrial development, demand for printing on packaging and labels has increased, becoming a driving force for the industry.

But local companies face fierce competition from foreign companies, especially those from Thailand, mainland China, Malaysia, Taiwan, the US and Australia, who already have a massive market share, particularly in packaging and labelling.

With their better technologies, they enjoy an advantage over local competitors.

In recent years the HCM City printing industry had been spending US$5 million-$7 million annually on buying new technologies. However, it was mostly focused on publishing, leaving other sectors with outdated technologies, the association said.

To overcome difficulties, the association had suggested a series of measures like developing healthy competition, avoiding overlap in investment, and focusing investment in special printing sectors.

HCM City has 260 printing presses equipped with industrial presses and more than 2,000 smaller establishments.

The industry annually prints 540 billion pages on average, earning more than 18 trillion dong ($870.4 million).

It accounts for 60-65 percent of the country’s total printing output. – VNS

Posted by VBN on May 26 2011. Filed under Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry