Print China a Resounding Success for KBA

With more than 200 printing units sold from all available series and a high influx of visitors to the 1,000m2 stand, Print China which ran from April 7-12 in Guangdong was a huge success for the KBA Group. Several KBA companies joined forces under the banner “KBA: Print Solutions for All,” and the host of exhibits ranging from sheetfed and web offset, flexo, inkjet, metal, hollow container and glass decoration, and digital coding systems were met with great interest.
 
Despite the country’s recent somewhat sluggish economy, the string of new orders and projects booked by the end of the trade show clearly surpassed all expectations. KBA profited from its strong footing in packaging printing. In addition, high performance presses with extensive kit and automation are becoming increasingly popular given the rise in wage costs also in China. KBA Rapidas accommodate this trend.
 
“Along with sheetfed offset, our exhibits here demonstrate that KBA specializes in nearly everything which can be printed and finished with color or inks using various techniques,” said Ralf Sammeck, EVP for sheetfed offset presses.
 
Crowds watched live demos of a five-color Rapida 105 with coater and a Rapida 75-4+L equipped with energy-saving and environmentally friendly LED-UV. The Rapida 105, which is based on the Rapida 106, can be found in printing companies across China and was again the most ordered press at the show. A raft of new users also snapped up the more highly automated Rapida 105 PRO, even though its official unveiling is scheduled for the end of June in Radebeul.
 
The string of orders placed during the trade show ranged from the Rapida 75, Rapida 105, Rapida 105 PRO, the high-tech Rapida 106 to the large-format Rapida 145. The second order for a Rapida 145 from internet printer Zhengzhou Shengda Color Printing Co. Ltd is an example of the shift in the Chinese print market.
 
“In the face of tough competition, Chinese online printers are increasingly switching to large format,” noted KBA sales director Dietmar Heyduck. “We are supporting this development with our automated large-format presses for fast job change, a higher level of productivity and shorter delivery times.
 
“The Chinese packaging market continues to grow, especially with regard to consumer packaging,” Heyduck added. “The majority of the orders placed here at the trade show came from packaging printers and their demands in terms of press equipment are also rising. Longer presses with more than four or five colors, inline coating and a higher level of automation are becoming increasingly more popular.”
 
“We hope that we can transfer our outstanding reputation with folding carton printers to the new flexo presses for flexible packaging soon,” said Walter Zehner, managing director of KBA China. “Many of the print experts visiting Print China were amazed by the film samples printed on presses from KBA-Flexotecnica and visitors flocked to our flexo seminar. There are also concrete projects for KBA-Flexotecnica’s EVO presses in the pipeline. The production of flexible packaging is still dominated by gravure in China, but flexo printing, which is environmentally friendly and economical for small and medium-sized jobs, has exceptional prospects for the future. This is also true of the printing systems from KBA-Kammann for the direct decoration of premium glass containers, the well-positioned metal-decorating lines from KBA-MetalPrint and KBA-Metronic’s marking and coding systems suited to packaging lines or coding industrial goods.”