With over 180,000 visitors, the China Print trade show, held from May 14 to 18, 2013, in Beijing, has firmly established itself as Asia's biggest event for the print media industry. In addition to healthy interest from Chinese companies, the number of visitors from outside China rose significantly. China Print welcomed above all, print shops from other countries in Asia, such as Taiwan, the Philippines, and India, but also visitors from Central and South America and Russia. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) presented its products and services, including a large number of innovations, on the growing Asian market, under the banner Discover HEI. "We were very pleased with the outcome of the trade show," said Marcel Kiessling, member of the Heidelberg Management Board responsible for Sales and Services. "Customers showed great interest in our new products and services. We are confident that we'll continue to profit from the potential offered by this region in the future."

The Heidelberg trade show stand was dedicated to aspects of particular interest to customers in China and other countries in Asia - high productivity through lean production processes (HEI Productivity), coating and special effects in packaging printing (HEI Emotions and HEI End), web-to-print (HEI Integration), and green printing (HEI Eco). Visitors were given an insight into a complete print shop workflow for packaging printing. Heidelberg also demonstrated the entire production process for commercial printing with a particular focus on lean production and integration of web-to-print. Products and services for green printing were covered in all segments.

Premiere of the Speedmaster SX platform on the Chinese market 

The new SX press platform made its debut on the Chinese market in the form of the Speedmaster SX 102 eight-color perfecting press. This platform has been optimized for the commercial print segment in particular and is aimed primarily at print shops that are expanding and therefore need to increase their productivity further still. 

High demand for machines produced locally in Qingpu 
The standard Speedmaster SM 52 and SM 74 four-color presses made at the Chinese production facility in Qingpu near Shanghai were also on display in Beijing. In addition, visitors had the opportunity to see the Speedmaster CD 102 five-color press, which was added to the Qingpu production program in spring last year. Heidelberg is the only European press manufacturer to have its own factory in China. Since it opened in 2005, the factory has produced over 900 presses of various formats and more than 770 Stahlfolder KH 66/78 folding machines for sale in China and other countries. Customers were impressed with the quality of the locally produced machines. Around half of the printing units order at the show were for standard machines made in Qingpu.

Service portfolio with service contracts and Saphira consumables

In response to the demands of the Asian market for seamless machine operation, Heidelberg presented its portfolio for services and consumables. This takes the form of made-to-measure service agreements for the various print shop business models. Heidelberg has further developed its Remote Service concept and now also offers the Remote Monitoring function. With this function, the status of the machine is monitored continuously during operation so that any faults or problems can be identified at an early stage. Saphira consumables from Heidelberg combined with the comprehensive service portfolio enable Chinese print shops to get the most out of their equipment while also protecting the environment. 

Chinese customers at the show were also very interested in finding suitable financing concepts. Heidelberg Financial Services offered a comprehensive range of financing solutions in cooperation with local external financing partners. In this market, Heidelberg makes around two-thirds of its machine sales in active cooperation with its partners.

China remains the most important single market for Heidelberg 

Heidelberg generates around 16 percent of its total sales in China, thus making it the biggest single market for the company. And market growth is expected to continue in the future. Heidelberg has structured its market organization in China accordingly. With a workforce of over 1,000 employees, it boasts the most extensive organization of any foreign press manufacturer. Its workforce includes over 600 sales and service staff and around 450 employees working in production.