KBA sprints ahead in China Print with ten contract signings

KBA presented a raft of presses on its 1050sqm stand under the banner ‘sprinting ahead.’ “With a record-size stand at the trade show, KBA underscores the importance of the Chinese market and China Print as a key show for the printing industry this year,” read the statement issued by the company.

At the show, KBA unveiled the new large-format Rapida 145 for the first time to the Chinese market in Beijing as well as the popular medium-format Rapida 105. On day one of the show, live demonstrations of both presses attracted a huge crowd of visitors.

However, KBA has not yet announced any orders from India during the show. When PrintWeek India contacted Aditya Surana of Indo Polygraph, which represents KBA sheetfed presses in India, he maintained that the two upcoming KBA presses to India will be installed at TCPL and Sai Packaging. The orders for these presses were announced during Drupa by KBA.

On the second day of the show,  KBA announced that the Rapida 145 showcased at the show will be handed over to Ningbo Beike Packaging. This is the first KBA Rapida 145 large-format press to go to China and the second in Asia to be installed after the trade show at the customer’s plant in Ningbo.

KBA’s export level temporarily sinks to 71.2%.

The recently announced results of the company shows that KBA’s domestic sales nearly doubled in the first quarter of the last fiscal due to a rise in deliveries of web and sheetfed offset presses. Thus at 71.2% KBA's export ratio was below average (in 2012, it was 89.2%). However, the company expects the ratio to return to normal, around 80%, in the upcoming quarters. 29.8% of group sales went to the rest of Europe, which was well below average given economic problems in key markets.

The growing Asia-Pacific region, including the major market China, contributed 23.2% to group sales and the ratio attributable to North America rose slightly from 8.2% in 2012 to 10.9%. The proportion generated in Latin America and Africa came to 7.3%.

Despite lower order, sales and earnings figures as well as global economic risks, the KBA management board has set realistic targets for 2013. These include similar sales to 2012 and a modest improvement in pre-tax earnings.

Management has based its forecast on the raft of deliveries scheduled for the following months and a rise in sheetfed orders expected in May from the world's second-largest trade fair, China Print 2013.

KBA vice-president and CFO Dr Axel Kaufmann said, "The on-going turn-around programme in place until the end of 2014 in the competitive sheetfed and web offset business should noticeably improve earnings. Along with the continuing realignment of production capacity and amendments to wage agreements effective since the beginning of the year, there are also cost-saving measures in place in group purchasing and administration. We also expect new contracts in the web and special press division in the second and third quarters, such as the orders for newspaper web presses received in April."

President and CEO, Claus Bolza-Schünemann sees growth potential in digital printing and flexible packaging for KBA. "With the digital KBA RotaJet 76 and the expansion of our product range for packaging with own products as well as the planned takeover of Italian manufacturer, Flexotecnica, we aim to compensate for the smaller market for traditional sheetfed and web offset presses with growing print markets. This strategy demands time and appropriate investment which can be realised with our own means. In 2013 the new market segments will only make a limited contribution to group sales and earnings; however this should change in the midterm," he said.