Business Management - Industry Trends

Print has profoundly changed the world, and now the printing industry is being called upon to profound-ly change itself... so that it can continue to package knowledge and goods for human consumption in ways that address the challenges of sustainability and climate change. “Sustainability” is the conceptual framework used to redefine the way business is done by Fortune 1000 companies and, increasingly, it will change the nature of demand for printing services, printing equipment and supplies. While historically “green” primarily referred to environmental regulatory compliance, sustainability is a term that encompasses the “beyond compliance” environmental, social and economic aspects of a business, a

Ulrik Nygaard became CEO of Baumfolder Corporation in 2002, capping a graphic arts industry career that began at Danish East Asiatic Company, some three decades ago. In that time, he has had responsibilities in Asia, Germany, Britain and the United States for an evolving series of organizations, including Heidelberg Eastern, AM Graphics and Harris Graphics. During the NPES INDUSTRY SUMMIT in Chicago, he shared his insights on finishing today. What have been the most striking changes in finishing? How much has the automation revolution affected the postpress department? I think there has been a very significant change toward more operator friendly machines, in

IDTechEx has recently travelled to major RFID events in Europe and North America. Here are our conclusions on industry progress so far until mid 2007. May 29, 2007 The tagging of pallets and cases to meet retail mandates is still struggling to take off. In Q3 2005 many companies announced loss-leading tag prices in anticipation that it would overcome cost barriers and drive adoption of RFID in this sector, enabling them to turn profitable as the demand of tags reached billions each year. By mid 2007, we see this has not been the case. This year, IDTechEx expect that only 375 million tags

Arla Foods, the largest dairy products company in Europe, has been developing various smart packages including ones that have micropumps that suck down the plastic wrapping back on to cheese to preserve it in the home. Electroactive plastics change shape under the influence of an electric field and another potential application of them would be to make the package of expired food change in texture to warn the partially sighted user. Micromuscle AB in Sweden is one of several companies developing electroactive polymers. Their products will be used as muscles, locks (for example on packages of hazardous chemicals) and even communication with the partially

THERE SURELY is agreement in the United States, as well as in Western Europe and elsewhere, that China is quickly building up its technology and equipment levels to become the dominant supplier of printed products for the Chinese market and a major supplier for the world market. I just returned from spending several months teaching Business English at the University of Wuhan’s Printing and Packaging School. I taught future leaders of the Chinese printing and packaging industry a course in Business English, which included business terminology, Website development, how to handle inquiries from prospective foreign customers and how to furnish quotes to foreign clients.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced its preliminary determination in the ongoing countervailing duty (CVD) investigation on imports of coated free sheet paper (CFS) from China, Korea and Indonesia. The initial determination shows that producers and exporters of CFS paper have received countervailable subsidies, ranging up to 20.35 percent in China, up to 1.76 percent in Korea, and 21.24 percent in Indonesia. As a result, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is required to apply anti-dumping duties to imports of CFS. PIA/GATF believes these duties will cause shortages in the U.S. market for CFS paper and a rise in paper costs, reducing the volume of

How important are process automation and e-commerce capabilities to a printer’s success in working with today’s emerging “demand specifiers?” Doug Traxler is executive vice president of Webb/Mason, based in Hunt Valley, MD. Webb/ Mason is an $85 million company specializing in online brand management, creative and print services. The company works with nearly 200 “preferred partners” nationwide, matching their services to the needs of more than 400 active customers. Traxler was part of a “Demand Specifiers Panel” at the recent NPES Industry Summit in Chicago. We followed up with him afterward. At first glance, the Webb/Mason model is reminiscent of the e-commerce “bid and

In the October 2006 issue of NPES News, we highlighted the preliminary findings of Phase 1 of the PRIMIR study on the Worldwide Market for Print. Phase 3 of this study is now essentially complete and was presented to the member-ship at the recent NPES Industry Summit. The message from this report is clear. . .if you’re not thinking global, you better begin investigating international markets soon. If you are a global marketer, there may be some markets not currently on your radar screen worth taking a closer look at going forward. In this issue, we will explore the top level global printing market

Surprisingly, Europe has been pulling ahead of the rest of the world in many aspects of printed and potentially printed electronics just lately and this will be revealed by the following organisations and others at the forthcoming conference Printed Electronics Europe April 17-18 at Cambridge University UK, (www.idtechex.com/peEurope). Remarkable advances from Korea, Japan and the US will also be presented. Europe gets into production first In 2007, Nanoident opened the world’s first printed semiconductor factory in Austria, making photodetector arrays initially. Plastic Logic of the UK raised $100 million to build the world’s first factory making displays with printed organic transistor backplanes. It will

RESTON, VA—April 4, 2007—The first NPES Industry Summit, held recently in Chicago, provided an optimistic view of print’s current and future prospects and a preview of the world’s most promising growth markets for the years ahead. The Summit, presented by NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, combined the 26th edition of the PRINT OUTLOOK® economic forecasting conference with the NPES Spring Conference and the Spring meeting of PRIMIRSM, the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization. “Bringing the annual PRINT OUTLOOK together with the PRIMIR Spring Meeting and the NPES Spring Conference in a central locale like Chicago provided