The Beijing Shengtong Printing Company ("Shengtong") of Northern China has ordered its second Goss Sunday 2000 press. Scheduled for shipment in May 2010, it will be installed in a new, state-of-the-art facility currently under construction. The company's existing Sunday press will be relocated alongside the new one.

Shengtong became the first printer in Northern China to install gapless Sunday web press technology in 2008. Almost identical to the initial system, the new four-unit, 24-page Sunday 2000 press features a 1450-mm (57-inch) web width, a PCF-1.2 pinless combination folder and Goss Ecocool dryer.

According to Mr. Jia Chun Lin, president of Shengtong, the decision to install a second Sunday 2000 press proves the wisdom of the original choice: "The first Sunday investment was part of our company's long-term strategy to build a business with 100-year longevity by acquiring world-famous brand name technologies and first-class equipment. Seeing the growth trend in the printing industry from Southern China moving towards the North, we decided to follow our market judgment that gapless technology would become widely recognized and utilized in the Northern market."

Against competition from a number of 16-page presses in the region, the first 24-page Sunday 2000 press has been winning jobs through its efficiency, quality, capacity and productivity, according to Chun Lin. Printing at speeds up to 82,000 impressions per hour, the six-pages-across 24-page format produces 50 percent more pages per revolution and makeready, with no increase in crew size. The wider format also allows greater product flexibility to accommodate the broad range of requirements from Shengtong's international customer base. With around two-thirds of revenue currently derived from web offset production, the latest investment provides welcome added capacity.

Producing around 150 magazines and multiple newspapers as well as books, direct mail products and packaging, Shengtong currently generates about 10 percent of its revenue from customers overseas, including USA, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Sweden, Russia and Korea. Current trends are the same across all its active markets including Northern China, according to Chun Lin: the growth in volume has slowed and cost controls are ever tighter.

"China no longer has a monopoly on price," says Chun Lin. "People may still relate China with cheap labor and low cost but I believe this mindset has become outdated. Many developing countries now offer low-cost manufacturing and we have to compete on quality. Shengtong pays the highest attention to its reputation – when we win a customer's order, we also want to win their trust."

The Beijing Shengtong Printing Company was founded in 1999 and today, with more than 1000 employees, is one of the largest privately owned printing enterprises in China. In 2002 the company moved to a new 10,000m² (108,000 square foot) facility to accommodate its recent rapid expansion and will move into a new 53,000 m² (570,000 square foot) facility by 2010.