UBP Printing of East Malaysia, a subsidiary of United Borneo Press Group Sdn Bhd, has ordered a further Goss Community SSC press line to address forthcoming trends and to meet anticipated market forces. The order for six four-high towers and a Goss N40 folder comes just one year after installing a five-tower Community SSC press.

The new press is scheduled for delivery into UBP's facility in Miri City, Serawak, later this year and will print the company's leading title, United Daily News, among others.

According to Sim Yong Liang, managing director at UBP Printing, the investment is a proactive step to meet market conditions in Malaysia. "Newspaper publishing has been very challenging in this part of the world. United Daily News (UDN) is making a broad move to invest in Goss Community SSC shaftless technology and ink pre-setting systems ahead of the rest of the market, as we foresee the growing requirement for more color pages in newspapers."

Specified with features that will maximize efficiency and reduce waste, the press will be the company's first installation featuring independent drives for each tower. The "footprint shaftless" configuration allows greater production flexibility and faster set-up. This will be complemented by a number of advanced operational capabilities such as automated press controls, ink-key presetting, zero-speed web splicers, and automatic web break detection.

The new press will enable UDN to print up to 24 pages broadsheet in full color, while maintaining better print quality at higher running speeds, says Yong Liang. "Less wastage on the rolls is one of our key objectives," he explains. "The cost of newsprint is continuing to increase and, especially with the current oil prices, we need to minimize set-up waste."

"The Malaysian market is very challenging and requires the publisher to offer precisely the right products for readers," concludes Yong Liang. "This investment choice is the result of extensive experience and exhaustive testing of the capabilities and the reliability of the Community technology, and with it UDN is on its track to keep growing its readership."