Feng Yan General Manager Beijing Zhenheng Limin Printing Machinery Co., Ltd.
I. The High-End and Mid-Range Packaging Printing Markets Show Clear Demarcation
Undoubtedly, China's printing industry has been in a winter for some time. The rapid expansion and overheated growth of previous years laid the groundwork for this downturn—excessive expansion and abnormal development have severely depleted the industry's potential. Coupled with the orderly economic adjustments and sluggish demand over the past two years, this has further reinforced expectations of a prolonged slump.
Although the packaging printing market fares better than book/magazine printing and commercial printing, this advantage is relative. Excessive workforce, severe overcapacity, and sluggish or rapidly declining demand represent common challenges across the entire industry.
The overcapacity in packaging printing stems both from internal factors—the disorderly expansion of low-to-mid-tier production within the sector—and external influences, such as practitioners from book/magazine and commercial printing transitioning into packaging printing. The latter group also grapples with oversupply, as excessive investments in offset printing presses outstripped market demand. For many printing plants, shifting to packaging printing became the most accessible option. If this trend persists, competition in packaging printing will intensify further.
So where does the industry's future lie? Resolving the issues of “excessive workforce and severe overcapacity” can only be achieved through the natural law of survival of the fittest. It's like an elevator packed to capacity—it can't operate until people either voluntarily step out or are pushed out by the crowd. Drawing from this analogy, industry players must conduct a comprehensive and objective assessment of their own capabilities, growth potential, and market positioning.
For surviving enterprises, developing robust strategies to navigate the market downturn is paramount. First, recognize that this market adjustment differs significantly from past cycles—prepare for a protracted battle. Second, proactively transform crisis into opportunity by upgrading production processes, phasing out outdated methods, enhancing equipment automation and production flexibility, and cultivating core technologies to ultimately strengthen competitiveness.
Tailor production processes to end-users while aligning with corporate strengths. For example, packaging printers serving standard boxes can largely maintain offset printing plus die-cutting. However, adopting commercial printing's shared plate model or leveraging digital inkjet technology to target niche, personalized markets can meet e-commerce demand for novel small-batch packaging.
The shared printing production model has been prevalent in the market for years, with its comprehensive competitive advantages widely recognized. Its success lies in generating efficiencies through shared plates (similar jobs) and standardized specifications (fixed product dimensions, prescribed substrates, etc.).
Specialized packaging printing enterprises either possess large scale and exceptional capabilities or are affiliated with renowned wine producers and tobacco manufacturers, granting them inherent business advantages. Consequently, they can continue pursuing high-end luxury and high-value-added packaging production.
II. Innovative Development of Domestic Packaging Finishing and Printing Equipment
Beijing Zhenheng Limin Printing Machinery Co., Ltd. primarily manufactures double-size sheet-fed gravure printing presses and double-size sheet-fed flexographic printing (coating) machines for packaging printing. As a technology supplier of packaging finishing production equipment serving high-end luxury packaging printing enterprises, the company places particular emphasis on innovative applications for enhancing packaging print finishing effects. Zhenheng Limin's development journey mirrors the evolution of China's luxury, high-value-added packaging sector: from the initial cost-unconscious pursuit of “high-end” in cigarette packs and liquor boxes to today's emphasis on cost reduction and efficiency while maintaining quality. Its coating and finishing equipment has progressed from low-automation single-unit gravure and flexo coating presses to the current high-performance, highly automated combination systems co-produced with Beiren Group. This evolution reflects not only the trajectory of packaging printing equipment but also signifies domestic manufacturers' efforts to keep pace with the times and align with international standards.
For instance, in recent years, the company has actively responded to market demands by pursuing cost reduction and efficiency gains while maintaining product quality and finishing effects: First, it adopted cost-effective, flexible “external” units to meet the needs of high-end clients operating highly automated multicolor offset presses; Second, advancements in UV light sources, plate-making, and ink technology have enabled single-revolver printing to achieve industrial-scale production of frosted, snowflake, and wrinkled effects that rival screen printing quality. Concurrently, VOC emission restrictions have limited screen printing's application in cigarette packaging. Single-groove machines, however, have gained traction in the cigarette packaging market since their successful debut at Shantou Dongfeng Printing in 2013. Their advantages—high efficiency, thin ink layers, rapid light curing, strong three-dimensional effects, and low VOC emissions—have sparked a trend where single-groove frosted finishes are replacing screen printing.