Asia-Pacific markets ripe for growth: study

The largest share and fastest pace of growth in commercial and marketing print will be in the Asia-Pacific region, with the US, UK, and Canadian markets expected to have modest declines, according to a new study.

The Worldwide Market for Print 2.0: Global Opportunities in Publishing Printing and Marketing & Commercial Printing (WWMP) study is published by American print suppliers’ association NPES and German mechanical engineering association VDMA, with research contributed by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The study reports that 71 per cent of the total publishing printing revenues in the study are concentrated in five top markets: China, US, Japan, UK and France.

However, the largest share and fastest pace of future growth will be primarily among emerging nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

India’s large market will be the most opportune global bright spot, projected to grow significantly at 8.1 per cent annually, adding $1.2bn in domestic revenue between 2016 and 2021, and supplant the UK as the fourth largest publishing printing market.

Additionally, projected regional Asia-Pacific growth in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and China will post annual increases from 6.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent through 2021.

Dominated in 2016 by newspapers at $27bn globally, magazines at $26bn, and books at $21bn worldwide, these publishing segments will experience moderate declines of 2.4 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively through 2021 in local-currency terms.

The report values the global marketing and commercial printing market, at $62bn in 2016, noting it offers more global opportunities among 18 of 26 nations studied are expected to grow from 2017 to 2021.

Across the regions, Western Europe accounted for 40 per cent of the total market in 2016, followed by Asia-Pacific at 29 per cent, and North America at 25 per cent, with the Asia-Pacific countries leading in growth.

Indonesia will grow the fastest, with yearly growth in 2017-2021 at 8.2 per cent, India at 7.7 per cent, and Vietnam at 6.1 per cent, followed by a broad mix of nations with Germany and France closing out the 18-country growth bracket.

The larger U.S, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Canada and U.K. markets reflect modest annual declines ranging from 1.4 per cent to 0.3 per cent.

Among the five marketing and commercial printing segments, brochure and pamphlet printing was the largest at $20bn in 2016, with solid average growth across the 26 countries in the study projected at 2.5 per cent annually 2017–2021. And, the second largest segment, catalogue printing, reflects positive 2.7 per cent annual growth to 2021.

Source: NewZealand Printer