Innovations are on the way to Indian web
offset domain, says IPAMA vice president
Constant expansion in the Indian web offset market is eventually spinning out a
series of innovations in machines and technologies used in newspaper production,
book printing and some other activities in related quarters. Dredging up this
flourishing development, Satish Bajwa, vice president (north), IPAMA
talks in length revealing different perspectives in an
exclusive conversation with Jyaneswar Laishram from All About Newspapers
Satish Bajwa
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It may be little early
now to talk about all
innovations pouring in
around the Indian web offset
market, remarks Satish
Bajwa with an indication
that every web off s e t
machine manufacturer in
the country has something
in their plans for future
innovat ive expansions,
based on the current market
needs. “The very basic focus
of these manufacturers in the
country is on downtime of
machines in order to make
proficient wastage control,”
he asserts.
As long as newspapers keep
shrinking to varied sizes and
changing to multiple colours, web offset
machine manufacturers in India need not
to stick to making the same old sizes
and configurations of machines. “Various
automations including automatic ink-water
balance, online finishing, stacking and
delivery systems have become standard
features in the indigenously manufactured
Indian web offset machines, radically
enabling wastage reductions,” mentions
Satish, adding, “Now is the right time
to embrace any sort of innovation in
the industry. This has a far reaching
impact on the global economy and more
pertinent to the ecology unless the issues
are addressed by all industries, otherwise
it would be late after few years.”
With a web-themed seminar and symposium at PRINTPACK INDIA
2015 for the first time in the history of India, IPAMA will provide a common
platform where domestic and international web offset Manufacturers, Printers
and Technocrats are to be gathered for productive discussions on where they all
can move forward to a new paradigm of developments and
collaborations. “In the recent past, international players were
more inclined to go to China because of the infrastructures
and smooth government handling in the country. Now the
direction has been changed toward India with the change
of government and the strategic ‘Make in India’ initiative,”
explains Satish.
“Themed on TOGETHER WE GROW we are organising a
very special Seminar and Symposium on Web Printing on
the sidelines of PRINTPACK INDIA 2015 on February 13
where eminent industry leaders under one roof will share
their ideas through various sessions on future growth and
developmental perspectives in the industry and ways to
perform better in the international arenas,” asserts Satish
conveying a message to everyone involving in the industry
about making India proud through quality manufacturing.
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Current scenario
Discarding the speculations around,
Satish indicates that the current web
offset market of India is not at all in
bad shape. “In the mid-1970s when India
started manufacturing web offset machines,
we had a pre-conceived notion that the
market would be saturated in the 1980s.
But things moved on, innovations got
ushered in as newspaper sizes
kept changing, colour arena
came in, automations started,
number of pages increased.
Soon the old machines and
mechanisms got upgraded,
old machines required
replacements,” he narrates,
adding, “The demographic
classification of our country
shows 60 percent citizens
around the age of 30, that
too educated marginally.
So, in terms of print media
readership to the extent has
a vast space of untapped
and non-saturated almost to
a level of 80 percent, which
will need to be filled. The
scenario is vastly different
from the USA and Europe.”
According to Satish, around 40 web offset
manufacturers are active in India and they
can be categorised under three different
grades (A, B and C). There are around
6-7 manufactures in the first or Grade
A, whereas 10-15 of them are in Grade
B and approximately 20 are in Grade C.
Almost 300 vendors and channel partners
are engaged in machine distribution or
dealership. Of the total production of over
200 units per month in the country, 20-
25 percent are exported to the overseas
markets, which makes 70 percent of the
overall single width/circumference web
offset machines produced in the word.
“More than 75 percent of all web offset
machines produced in India are meant for
newspaper sector while around 20 percent
engaged in book printing and approximately
five percent in miscellaneous printing
activities like note books, answer sheets,
question papers, etc.
Automation front
How conscious are the Indian web offset
machine users about auto wash, colour
registration and other automations?
Satish’s answer to this question is,
“Many in the industry used to rely only
on manual practices, but today around
85 percent of them adopted automations.
But of late, over the last couple of
years, we have witnessed an increasing
trend in adoption of automations.
I think the industry will go changing to
full automation in the next 3-4 years as
printing houses are now fully conscious
about wastage control in terms of cutting
down manpower, newsprints wastages,
inks, downtime, etc.” Referring to an
example of Pressline India’s grand
introduction of automatic and semiautomatic
versions a few years back, he
mentions that they have been producing
90 percent of its machines since then
in these formats only, receiving good
response from old and new customers.
Despite ultra modern features like
automations and others have been
characterised in the India-made web
offset machines, there are certain
downsides still lingering around as most
of the machine models manufactured in
the country are developed seeing others
produced in the international markets.
“Certainly, as far as the basic designs
of web machines in India are concerned,
80 percent of them are just replications
of the models developed by overseas
manufactures which were popular in
advanced countries when we were just
in a nascent stage around 40 years ago,”
explicates Satish. However, he adds that
the situation is now improved a lot as
most of the machines manufactured
in India now-a-days are modelled in
accordance to the suitability of local
requirements.
Digital domain
Yes, today is the era of digital presses,
which find good penetration into several
lucrative domains, including book printing.
This does not mean the revolution will
take over the conventional industry soon
in a complete absorption. “When we look
at the quantum of production and bulk
requirements, sheet-fed digital presses and
their consumables are quite expensive when
it comes to comparing them to web offset
machines,” explains Satish. He adds that
digital presses can run parallel to web
offset machines only for on-demand jobs
and less volume production of around 1-500
copies. So, talking further on the onslaught
of digital presses, he says the occupancy
of digital presses in web printing is just
a meagre percentage now and it may take
long time to make everything bring to the
full swing.
Mailroom making
Another development yet waiting to be
cultivated in the current newspaper market
of India is mailroom manufacturing. On
this front, Satish shares his wisdom
words, “There are certain reasons behind
the lack of mailroom manufacturers in
India. In fact, mailroom equipments are
really costly and infrastructures required
to manufacture them are also extremely
expensive. So, as of now, the Indian
newspaper industry is not confident
to go forward to this front.” But he
opines that things can change only
when some international (mailroom)
manufacturers come down to India to
tie up with local players/organisations
for collaborative ventures.
