I. A brief review of the development of China's printing technology
Printing was one of the four great inventions in ancient China. It had made world-recognized major contributions to the invention and development of ancient human printing, but Chinese modern printing technology lags behind. Since 1950, China's printing and equipment equipment industry has entered a new stage of development. After several five-year plans, it has established a printing and equipment equipment industry system through self-reliance, realized the printing of lead printing machinery, and gradually promoted offset printing. technology. From 1974, the National Key Project “748 Project†was established, which is the research and application of Chinese character information processing technology, including three projects of “Chinese Character Photocopying Systemâ€, “Chinese Character Information Retrieval System†and “Chinese Characters Communication Systemâ€. In 1988, the fourth-generation laser photocopying system was successfully developed. In the Economic Daily, instead of lead, China's printing technology began to bid farewell to “lead and fire†and entered a new era of “light and electricityâ€. Since the beginning of the 1980s, based on the development of printing technology and the needs of the domestic market, it has proposed the "16-word printing technology advancement policy of laser photocopying, electronic color separation, offset printing, and binding linkage" and has formulated a special plan, which was started in 1983. The special transformation of printing technology was included in the national plan. By 2000, it had invested about 3 billion yuan, and technological transformation was carried out on more than 200 printing equipment and equipment enterprises. Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, China's printing and equipment and equipment industries have continued to develop at a rapid rate. Major technological advancements have taken place and revolutionary changes have taken place.
II. Significant Progress in China's Printing and Equipment Equipment Industry in the Past Twenty Years
1. Great progress has been made in technology, leading-edge printing has been eliminated, and laser photocopying technology, offset printing and color offset printing technologies have been popularized.
Among the 11,211 printing enterprises in the country in 1980, there were only 56 electronic color separation machines, of which 176 were printed at two fixed-point factories for printing books and periodicals, there were 123,000 employees, and there were 25 electronic color separation machines. In 1979, the UK’s Munnar company was located in Beijing and Shanghai. The laser photocopying system was exhibited. After the exhibition, several units were retained. Offset machines accounted for only 29.1% of the total number of offset and offset presses. The ratio between printed and offset printing was 1:0.93, and the lead print was slightly larger than the offset.
In 1999, there were a total of 1,185 fixed-point printed books and printing companies in the country, with 309,100 employees. There were 319 electronic color separation machines, 1,293 laser photocopying systems, 512 full-page imposition equipment, 618 offset proofing machines, and 1,527 letterpress printing machines. , 6,860 lithographic printing presses, 2145 sets of binding engines. (Figure 1)
2. The production capacity has greatly increased
In 1949, there were fewer than 100 books and periodicals printing factories in the country, and the number of employees was less than 4,000. The output of books and periodicals was less than 500,000. By 1980, there were 112,000 books and periodicals printing enterprises in the country, with 815,000 employees, of which 176 were designated printing and printing enterprises at two levels, 12.3 million employees, 28.84 million copies of books and periodicals, and 1.15 billion yuan in industrial output value. In 1999, there were a total of 1,185 fixed-point printing and printing enterprises with 1,185 employees, 309,100 employees, 128.67 billion yuan in industrial output, 18.799 billion words in layout, 61,472,200 books and publications, and a total of 1.418 billion books (including reprints and reprints). The publication cycle was greatly shortened, and the average cycle time was reduced from 300 days to about 100 days. In 1999, 8,187 titles were published, and the total number of prints was 2.846 billion.
In 1980, there were 38 large-scale printing presses at or above the provincial level, with nearly 10,000 employees, a total of 2.846 billion prints and 10.7 billion pairs. In 1999, a total of 2,038 kinds of newspapers were published across the country, with a total of 31.838 billion copies, a total of 63.668 billion pairs of printed sheets, and 1.444 million tons of paper. In 1985, more than 10 kinds of national color publication newspapers were published, and in 1999 it had grown to 500 kinds; before 1992, Chinese newspapers were a 4th edition each day. By 1999, more than half of daily newspapers had published 4-6 pairs, 16-24 editions. , sometimes 12 pairs of open, count 48 layouts. Compared with the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, the average annual growth of books and periodicals printing is 30.96%, which is much higher than the national economic growth rate.
Compared with 1978 in 1998, in 1998, the printing capacity of the key printing and printing plants was 18.79 billion words, which was 430.7% higher than that in 1978; the printing of books and periodicals was 61.57 million, an increase of 479%; the number of multi-color offset printing was 1,100.43 million, an increase of 1157%, and binding was 4,618. Wanling increased by 335.6%, the number of books reached 141,831, increased by 846%, the number of journals was 8,187, increased by 780%, textbooks were 20,755, increased by 484%, newspapers were 2,038, increased by 1095%. (Figure II)
3. The sudden emergence of packaging printing and special printing has become an important pillar of printing and a new growth point.
According to the incomplete statistics of 19 provinces and cities in 1980, there are 139 factories engaged in packaging and printing, more than 6,300 employees, more than 5,000 printing equipments, and more than 400 plate making equipments. The annual output is nearly 33.5 billion RMB. 780 million yuan; With the development of the market economy, the rapid development of packaging and printing, according to incomplete statistics, as of the end of 1997, there are 6,050 county-level packaging and printing companies, employees about 730,000 people, achieving industrial output value of about 30 billion yuan. At present, there are more than 20,000 companies engaged in rapid printing in the country, with more than 30,000 small offset presses, and a number of fast printing chain agencies have emerged in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, etc. Some of the fast printing companies have used computer integrated online services. Machines and other latest technologies and equipment. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 30,000 screen printing companies across the country, of which more than 1,000 have begun to take shape and employ more than 158,000 people. (Figure 3)
4. The variety of printing equipment and equipment has increased, and the technological level and quality have been significantly improved. Breakthroughs have been made in some areas, except for a few high-precision products, which can basically meet the needs of China's printing industry.
In 1997, there were 65 printing machinery enterprises, with a total of 45,775 employees and an industrial output value of 2,707.49 million yuan. They produced a total of 140 web offset presses and 9,591 various sheetfed offset presses. Printing machinery has formed a group of backbone enterprises and enterprise groups with considerable strength and capable of mass production of more advanced offset printing machines, gravure printing machines, flexo printing machines, small offset printing machines and postpress processing equipment. In addition to high-end printing equipment needs to be imported, the mid-range printing equipment can already be based in China, and the domestic market share of domestic printing machines is about 60%. In 1996, a total of 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of printing equipment and parts were imported, mainly imported high-grade offset presses and prepress electronic devices.
The Chinese character laser photocopying system made a major breakthrough in the early 1980s. BeiDing Founder's Chinese character laser photocopying technology is not only used in China, overseas Chinese language newspapers are also widely used, and Peking University Founder's Japanese typesetting software and RIP have entered the Japanese market.
In 1980, there were 22 ink factories across the country, with about 7,000 employees, an annual production capacity of 24,000 tons, and an output value of 139.95 million yuan. There are about 400 ink manufacturing companies in China with 25,000 employees. The annual output of ink is 143,000 tons, of which the output of joint ventures accounts for about 70%. Through the introduction of technology and foreign capital, the variety of inks has increased substantially, and the level and quality of products have been significantly improved, basically meeting the needs of the domestic printing industry. Domestic inks such as photocurable inks, water-based inks, and metallic inks have been successfully developed and put into production.
In 1998, there were not less than 50 companies with annual PS production capacity of 300,000 square meters. In 1998, the annual production capacity of the equipment was 50.94 million M2. The actual annual production exceeded 30 million square meters (excluding 500 PS plates for renewable production.) Yield). The annual output value is 1 billion yuan, of which about 50% of the output is produced by 3-4 large enterprises such as Lekai Group's second film factory.
5. Great changes have taken place in the structure and ownership structure of printing companies
There are 151,955 domestic enterprises, of which, there are 82,189 various types of printing enterprises in the country, 69,766 companies with copying, photocopying and printing, accounting for 45.95%, and 8,152 publications printing enterprises (including special enterprises for typesetting, plate making and binding of publications. 2,843), accounting for 5.4%; 20,409 packaging and decorating printing companies, accounting for 13.4%; and 53,628 other printing companies, accounting for 35.3%. Compared with before the rectification, various types of printing companies decreased by 20,946, copying, photocopying, and printing companies decreased by 12,202, and the sum of the two items decreased by 33,148, and the total amount decreased by 17.9% (including “Three India†companies). .
Among the 151,955 printing companies, 11,126 are state-owned enterprises, accounting for 7.3%; 41,939 are collective enterprises, accounting for 27.6%; 13,219 are limited liability companies, accounting for 8.7%; 9,388 are share-holding companies, accounting for 6.2%; 13,135 are private enterprises. , accounting for 8.6%; individual enterprises 58,305, accounting for 38.4%; 2,321 foreign-funded enterprises, accounting for 1.5%; other companies 2,522, accounting for 1.7%. It is not difficult to see that the structure of printing enterprises has gradually changed from state-owned and collective-based enterprises to state-owned, collective, joint-stock, joint-stock cooperative, foreign, private, and individual diversified. (Figures 4 and 5)
The Development Prospect of China's Printing Industry in the 21st Century
The early stage of the printing industry in China in the 21st century
For more than two decades, with the rapid and sustained growth of China's economy, China's printing and equipment equipment industry has maintained an advanced, stable, and high-speed growth. In a considerable period of time in the future, according to forecasts, the Chinese printing industry will continue to maintain this The good development trend is based on:
1) The printing industry's products - is a product with a wide range of uses, all walks of life are inseparable, no one is not used, ubiquitous products, with the economic development and people's cultural living standards, is a synchronous and advance development of the industry field. Although China now has 150,000 various types of printing companies, employs more than 3 million people, and has an annual output value of more than 1,000 billion yuan, the per capita printed output is still very low. According to the relevant information, in 1997, the per capita annual consumption of printed materials was US$56. At present, China’s per capita annual print consumption is about US$10, accounting for less than one-fifth of the world’s per capita consumption, and it is only 1/20 of that of Germany and 1/30 of the United States. Japan’s 1/40 is not only far from the world’s average, it is even more unequal to the developed countries, and the market has great potential for development;
2) At the beginning of this century, it will be a crucial period for China to achieve the second-step strategic goal of economic and social development. China’s economic development will maintain rapid growth, and people’s cultural and living standards will further increase. According to the plan, by 2010 China’s gross domestic product will double that of 2000. The "10th Five-Year Plan" is expected to have an average annual economic growth rate of about 7%, and the average annual growth of books and periodicals is about 1