Strong decline in turnover for German press manufacturers

Yearly turnover of German press and paper manufacturers saw a decline of 12% in 2014 compared to 2013, according to Deutscher Drucker. Dr.-Ing. Markus Heering responsible for the Printing and Paper Technology Association within the VDMA, the organisation of German machine manufacturers, says that there is not a lot to be done. The market for printing and paper technology is declining. The branche will have to live with this.
Despite the declining turnover, the market share worldwide of the German press and paper manufacturers is still over 25%. The value of export is 4.10 billion Euro in 2014 against 4.45 billion Euro in 2013. The decline is mostly due to the stagnation of the Chinese economy, especially newspaper and book printing. Packaging and tissues are doing better. Chinese machine manufacturers are catching up on what they lacked in technical abilities. Export volumes to Europe and the USA remained stable.