Pira International: North America Leads World Print Market

According to a new market study by the London-based Pira International, North America continues to be the world's largest market for print, with Western Europe holding the number-two slot, followed by Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, and Oceania. The US leads the North American segment, Germany leads Western Europe, China and India lead the Asian market, while Poland leads Eastern Europe. The study takes into account all printing technologies for all applications.

By 2010, forecasts the research organization, North America will continue to hold the number-one slot, but Asia will take over the number-two position, with Western Europe dropping into third.

Overall, the world printing market generated more than 467 billion euros in 2005, and is expected to generate nearly 553 billion euros by 2010, says Pira.

In looking at the mix of print technologies/processes comprising the global print market, Pira reports that wide-format digital printing makes up 3.5% of the mix, with narrow-format digital printing making up an additional 6.8%. Here's the entire global process mix for 2005:

“? Flexographic: 20.4%
“? Sheetfed/offset: 19.4%
“? Heatset web offset: 17.3%
“? Coldset webs offset: 13.3%
“? Gravure: 12.6%
“? Digital printing: 6.8%
“? Wide-format digital printing: 3.5%
“? Screen printing: 3.3%
“? Other: 1.8%
“? Letterpress: 1.6%

PIRA INTERNATIONAL
www.pira.co.uk