Asia-Pacific is fastest growing region in marketing & commercial printing markets

The Association for Print Technologies (APTech) and the Printing and Paper Technology Association within VDMA, the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association of Germany have released the joint comprehensive study “Worldwide Market for Print 2.0: Global Opportunities in Publishing Printing and Marketing & Commercial Printing” (WWMP).According to the new study, print packaging, publishing printing, and marketing & commercial printing, the largest industry segments, which account for a majority of the worldwide market, are projected to expand from $389bn in 2017 to $421bn in 2020, increasing 2.7% on average per year. Further, the study projects that print packaging will have healthy annual global growth of 4.5% through 2020; print growth will be dragged down by publishing printing, which will contract at an annual rate of 2%; and marketing & commercial printing will grow at a moderate pace of 0.7%.

The outlook for publishing printing will remain challenging over the next five years with the rise of digital media and decline in printed advertising sales continuing to create a difficult environment. As of 2017, the top five publishing printing markets in the world are China, U.S., Japan, UK and France, which together account for over 71% of the global market. With exchange rates expected to level out in the coming years, the growth in marketing & commercial printing revenues will rebound in 2017–21. While the US, UK, Germany, China and France are the five largest marketing & commercial printing markets, Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region, with India, Indonesia and Vietnam leading the way. With the worldwide connection to the internet, publishing printing and marketing & commercial printing are losing ground, especially in developed markets. Conversely, in emerging markets, technology has allowed countries to advance to digital media, however, printing is still a cheaper and more effective medium where fewer of the population are regularly online.