Print workers reported a shortage of equipment in Russian printing houses

“Printing houses, due to sanctions and the refusal of manufacturers from Europe, North America and Japan to supply equipment and spare parts, are faced with their shortage”, - Vedomosti reports, referring to top managers of Russian printing houses.

The fifth package of sanctions, adopted in April, prohibits the export to Russia of equipment for flexography, offset, gravure and letterpress printing, bookbinding machines of other equipment, as well as components and consumables for them.

The general director of the Pareto-Print printing house, Pavel Arsenyev, said that printing, binding, sewing, cover-making machines, and CTP equipment are produced in Europe. The main exporters of these products were Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and Japan. Roman Trunov, General Director of Vysshaya Shkola Publishing House, noted the possibility of using parallel imports to cover part of the needs, and Larisa Danilova, a representative of Octoprint Service, a supplier of consumables and spare parts for printing, believes that this mechanism is not suitable for the bulk of printing equipment .

As an alternative to deliveries from "unfriendly" countries, Arsenyev offered printing equipment from India and China. According to an industry representative, only a fraction of the required equipment is produced in these countries. The expert noted the low degree of automation of sewing machines from China, as well as the backlog of Indian web machines for two generations compared to European counterparts. In addition, industry representatives noted the increase in the cost of consumables in Asian markets. According to Danilova, prices rose by 35-40%.

Member of the Board of the Union of Printing Industry Enterprises of the Guild of Periodical Press Publishers Elena Shitikova agreed with the difficult situation on the equipment and components market. She sees a solution to the problem in the near future in the analysis of old cars, drawing an analogy with aviation. Trunov agreed that used equipment is now helping the industry survive. Such equipment appears on sale after the closure and change of activities of small and medium-sized printing houses. At the same time, Danilova emphasizes that it is impossible to replace some electronic components even under such conditions. Experts also note a rise in the price of spare parts by 2-3 times and report an extension of delivery times.

“As a result, some of the equipment in printing houses can simply stand up for a while”, - Arseniev believes.

Boris Kuznetsov, director of the Rosmen publishing house, did not rule out that due to problems with printing equipment in Russia, orders would have to be transferred to China, India, Iran, which would increase logistics costs by up to 20%.

The printers declared the need for government support for the industry. Shitikova believes that the launch of printing enterprises created jointly with China and India within six months can help the industry.