The challenges and composition of printing industry

1. Challenges facing the industry

(1) The concentration of the printing industry is low

The concentration of China's printing industry is low, the product homogeneity is high, there are more printing enterprises of the same type to choose from, the customer transfer cost is low, the viscosity is not high, and the competition in the industry is fierce. The fierce competition caused by homogenization restricts the development of the industry to some extent.

In addition, the industry concentration is low, and the small size of enterprises means that the upstream raw materials lack bargaining power. The concentration of the upstream base paper industry is high, resulting in a strong upstream bargaining power, in addition to a small number of enterprises with upstream and downstream industry chain integration capabilities or large-scale operations, most enterprises in the face of upstream suppliers lack bargaining power, poor ability to resist the price fluctuations of raw materials, restricting the development of the industry.

(2) High-end printing equipment depends on imports

At present, the middle and low grade printing equipment produced in China can basically meet the domestic demand, but there is still a big gap with the advanced level of foreign countries in speed, performance, stability, reliability, automation and information technology, and high-end printing equipment is still mainly dependent on imports. Although China's industrial policy focuses on supporting the development of digital printing technology and equipment, high-end printing machinery, high-end post-press equipment and green environmental protection equipment and other import substitution products, but in the short term still can not change the situation that high-end printing equipment mainly relies on imports. At present, domestic enterprises still need to spend high prices to purchase foreign high-end printing equipment, which has an adverse impact on the profitability of enterprises.

(3) The threat of electronic media to paper media is increasing

The Internet revolution has brought about major changes in the way information is disseminated. With the emergence and popularization of electronic media, the role of printing is relatively weakened. However, from the perspective of the market size of the printing industry, the market size of printing products based on paper is still growing and has maintained a high level for a long time. In the coming period, electronic media and traditional print media will complement each other and coexist.

2. Composition of industry barriers

(1) Technical barriers

The printing industry needs to achieve its profit goals through cost control, and cost control requires enterprises to have advanced production technology, forming a technical barrier to the industry. As large-scale enterprises in the industry continue to implement technical transformation of existing equipment, improve equipment performance, improve production efficiency, reduce product consumption, combined with intelligent and automated prepress processing system, highly automated full-process printing and other technologies, to ensure the industry's leading level of production technology. The advanced production technology and process of large-scale enterprises in the industry through the accumulation of time and experience constitute a certain obstacle to new entrants in the market.

In addition, the printing enterprises operating through the e-commerce platform also have the characteristics of Internet enterprises, that is, there are certain requirements for the information technology level of the enterprises themselves. Under the background of the transformation of traditional enterprises to "Internet +", frequent online transactions and a large amount of background data processing have put forward new requirements and challenges for enterprises' investment and experience accumulation in information technology. Enterprises with sound information technology research and development capabilities will be able to achieve more efficient operations and more accurately grasp the development trend of the industry. At the same time, with the improvement of per capita GDP and disposable income, consumers' demand for printing and packaging products is increasing, and enterprises are also putting forward higher requirements in product research and development and consumer demand analysis ability.

(2) Talent barrier

The printing industry needs to establish a systematic talent training system for product research and development, design, testing, manufacturing and operation management. In recent years, with the continuous growth of China's macro economy and the rapid development of downstream industries, China's printing industry has maintained a good momentum of growth, and the demand for professional talents is also increasing. With the development of the printing business model from the traditional single production and manufacturing model to the integrated solution model; From the traditional offline physical printing sales model to the online C2B production and sales model, the contradiction between the supply and demand of relevant talents has become increasingly apparent.

Nowadays, the shortage of talents in the printing industry, especially those who systematically master the engineering design of integrated printing services, modern IT technology, and practical experience in enterprise management, constitutes a talent barrier to enter the industry.

(3) Scale barrier

The scale effect of printing industry is more significant, which constitutes a higher scale barrier. In the face of small batch, customization, personalization and other customer needs, only enterprises of a certain scale can achieve long-term sustainable development. At the same time, printing enterprises need to achieve a certain scale in the customer channels, only after ensuring a considerable degree of customer sources and obtaining a large number of orders, to have the prerequisite for the implementation of plate printing, and on this basis through the plate printing process to reduce product costs. In terms of scale cost, the production line construction of the printing industry requires a larger scale of fixed asset investment, if the product production scale is small, it will lead to a higher unit product cost, unable to compete with mature enterprises in the market. In addition, some enterprise customers in order to reduce supplier management costs and express logistics procurement costs, tend to choose a complete category of suppliers, comprehensive service ability is strong, and establish long-term stable business cooperation with them. Therefore, enterprises with a certain scale in the industry have a competitive advantage in product types and production costs, forming a scale barrier in the printing industry.

(4) Financial barriers

The printing industry is an asset-heavy industry, and the initial investment requires large-scale fixed asset investment. In particular, the quality stability and production efficiency of high-grade paper printing products require more advanced production lines, some production equipment is imported equipment, and large-scale fixed assets require higher financial strength of enterprises. When enterprises in the industry provide customers with various specifications and categories of products, they need to purchase corresponding raw materials for production, which also causes greater pressure on enterprise funds.

In addition, with the development of the industry, the upgrading of production equipment of printing enterprises, the expansion of production capacity, product research and development, online channel promotion, offline store expansion, etc., require continuous capital investment, but also need to continue to invest in product design, store operation, brand publicity, platform and information system maintenance. Therefore, the establishment and development of printing enterprises require large initial capital investment and sustained later capital investment, which has high requirements for the financial strength of enterprises, so capital is an important barrier to enter the printing industry.

(5) Barriers to integrated service capability

The product and service process of the printing industry includes the understanding of the needs before printing, material design, material selection, sample trial printing, printing process selection, safety production, quality control, and post-printing processing, warehousing logistics, after-sales, etc., so the printing industry involves more business links, and puts forward higher requirements for the integrated service ability of printing enterprises. If an enterprise does not have the ability to integrate the above business processes and cannot provide customers with integrated services, it may be unable to meet customers' requirements for product quality and delivery timeliness, thus losing its competitiveness.

For printing e-commerce directly facing individual consumers or small and medium-sized enterprises, the above integrated service capability is particularly important, because the individual needs of individual consumers or small and medium-sized enterprises have diversified, small batch, cost sensitive characteristics, if you do not have the ability, you can not meet their downstream needs.

(6) Brand barriers

Printing enterprises with high brand recognition and customer stickiness have invested a lot of capital and manpower in product quality, design, distribution, etc., and have a strong endorsement effect on the quality and value of products and services. At the same time, brand building requires long-term investment of enterprises, and new entrants will face greater resource and time costs, which will restrict their market competitiveness. Therefore, the printing enterprises that can form brand effect will have a competitive advantage. The positive impact of brand effect is particularly significant for printing enterprises that are oriented to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual consumers. Because the quality of customized products and services for small, medium and micro enterprises and individual consumers is still uneven, the time cost of consumer screening is increased. Therefore, under the same circumstances, consumers generally choose goods with a better brand. Therefore, the brand effect is an important barrier for printing enterprises to become bigger and stronger.