In a festive ceremony at the production site Heidelberg Graphic Equipment Shanghai Ltd. (HGES), the packaging printing company Xian Jun Long was presented with a certificate recognizing the manufacture of the 9,999th printing unit in China. In a greeting sent via video link, Rainer Hundsdörfer, chief executive officer of Heidelberg, paid tribute to the high level of commitment and successful engagement in China.
“Our factory in Shanghai has proven a real success story for Heidelberg in our core business and for our customers. China is the largest individual market for us, and we want to continue to expand our market share of over 50 percent as well as our technological leadership in what is an important market for us by continuing our program of investment: we will be expanding our team in China in service, sales, and production to over 1,000 employees in anticipation of strong market growth in China.” Despite the Covid 19-pandemic, the print volume in China is once again picking up speed and has already exceeded the figures for the previous year.
Table of Contents
Packaging printing company Xian Jun Long’s success with Heidelberg machines
The printing company Xian Jun Long in Shenzhen is set to take delivery of a Speedmaster CD 102-9+L featuring the 9,999th printing unit. As a special design feature, a picture of the Great Wall has been painted on all the printing units to tie in with the wall’s historical length of 10,000 li. Xian Jun Long is one of the leading packaging printing companies in China, specializing in packaging for spirits, cigarettes, and luxury goods. The partnership between Xian Jun Long and Heidelberg goes back twenty years – and the Speedmaster CD 102 with the 999th printing unit from the Shanghai plant is also in production there.
“We already have the first Speedmaster CD 102-8+L from the Heidelberg Shanghai plant and look forward to the new Speedmaster CD 102-9+L in the usual Heidelberg quality due to be installed here in the near future. We will have another two sets of Speedmaster CD 102-8+L presses delivered to China Xian Jun Long Printing Group in August this year. Our goal is to grow successfully and to offer our customers products with more added value”, explained Kelvin Chong, information engineering director of China Xian Jun Long Printing Group. The anniversary press is in operation as part of an extensive fleet of Speedmaster CD 102 and Speedmaster CX 102 systems.
Growth market China
Packaging printing in China is growing with greater speed and sustainability than globally. The Speedmaster CD 102 has long been a bestseller in the Chinese market – it is highly versatile, whether for long or short runs, thin substrates or cardboard with thicknesses of up to a millimeter – the press offers outstanding productivity, quality, and value retention, and thus a high degree of investment security for customers.
“The market in Asia is evolving, and we are seeing strong demand for customer-specific machines and a wealth of variants, especially for packaging printing,” explained Achim Mergenthaler, manager of the Heidelberg site in Shanghai. “We are proud of our high quality, which – thanks to the high standards of the Heidelberg production network – is equal to that of the machines from the production facility in Wiesloch-Walldorf.”
Heidelberg intends to further accelerate the expansion of its production in China. Over 30 percent of all printing units are already built in China. The Shanghai production site will further increase the manufacture of standard models for the Chinese and Asian market and add special machine configurations, especially in packaging printing, to the portfolio. This will result in a competitive offering, particularly for the up-and-coming printing companies in China, which need the best machines in terms of productivity and quality and offer comprehensive solutions.
Heidelberg is therefore the only printing press manufacturer with the flexibility to offers its customers both locally manufactured machines as well as high-end machines from Germany.
“With the extended portfolio and higher production capacity in the Shanghai plant, we have reached a new milestone for Heidelberg China in further expanding our solutions for packaging printing,” explained Benny Huang, CEO of Heidelberg Greater China at the festive presentation ceremony. “We have been producing the Speedmaster CD 102 in the Shanghai plant since 2009. It is a classic sheet-fed printing press for packaging, label, and commercial printing companies featuring increasingly innovative and optimized technologies that is widely accepted by and popular with Chinese users.”
Heidelberg Shanghai: a success story
The Shanghai production site has a workforce of around 430 people. Printing presses in 50 x 70 cm and 70 x 100 cm formats are produced there, mainly intended for sale in China, but also for other Asian markets and the rest of the world. Over 10,000 printing units have now been delivered over fifteen years.
The site in the industrial zone of Qingpu near Shanghai commenced operation in 2006, is built to modern standards, and now encompasses a production area of around 45,000 square meters, making it one of the biggest printing press factories in Asia based on square footage.
On-site customer events
The Print Media Center Shanghai is integrated into the Heidelberg Shanghai plant and serves as a central showroom for China, other Asian Pacific markets and neighboring regions. Here, state-of-the-art technology and service solutions are presented, information events are held, and intensive tests and analyses of equipment, consumables, and workflow solutions are carried out. Customer operators are also trained here. The Print Media Center Shanghai has fully integrated workflows for commercial and packaging printers.
