Heidelberg has sold its 9,999th printing unit in China to packaging printing company Xian Jun Long as the company prepares for more investment in the region.
Xian Jun Long was presented with a certificate recognising the manufacture of the 9,999th printing unit in China, a Speedmaster CD 102-9+L, which was painted with a picture of the Great Wall as a special design feature.
Xian Jun Long specialises 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 at its facility.
“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,” Xian Jun Long Printing Group Information Engineering Director of China Kelvin Chong said.
“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.”
Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer 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,” he said.
“China is the largest individual market for us, and we want to continue to expand our market share of over 50 per cent 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.”
Manager of the Heidelberg site in Shanghai Achim Mergenthaler said the market in Asia is evolving, and the business is seeing strong demand for customer-specific machines and a wealth of variants, especially for packaging printing.
“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,” Mergenthaler said.
Heidelberg intends to further accelerate the expansion of its production 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.
Heidelberg said this will result in a competitive offering, particularly for the up-and-coming printing companies in China.
“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,” Heidelberg Greater China CEO Benny Huang said.
“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 optimised technologies that is widely accepted by and popular with Chinese users,” Huang said.
