Aimed at securing Tianjin’s position as market leader for special packaging with security features, the latest investment has consolidated the company motto of “Four Novelties” - new press, new equipment features, new processes and new materials.

Based in the northern port city Tianjin, the centre of the new Chinese “boom zone” Bohai-Rim, the installation is the outcome of intensive market research by Tianjin Yiyao Printing Co. Ltd.

The KBA China, sales team, backed up with valuable support from the KBA design departments in Germany, produced a press configuration tailored specifically to the user's needs based on the Rapida model.

The negotiating teams from Tianjin Yiyao and KBA after signing the contracts

The management team at Tianjin Yiyao is certain that the diverse finishing possibilities offered by the new press will prove a successful response to the increased price competition which has evolved in recent years through a flood of simple four and five-colour presses into the country. 

In most cases, imports of printing presses to China have no longer been exempt from customs duty since the end of 2005. It is true that the technical specifications for the exemption of printing presses from customs duty were redefined on 1st March this year – which a German competitor of KBA interpreted falsely as a re-introduction of exemption, leading understandably to a certain agitation also in China – but the prerequisites for the granting of exemption for capital goods have been tightened to such an extent since December 2005 that, with the exception of the newspaper sector, no further exemptions are granted for projects in the printing industry. 

Against this background, Tianjin Yiyao faced an existential question: Either to stagnate, or to swim against the tide with the largest single investment in the company's history, despite the additional burden of 28.7% customs duty and import tax. “That was a historical decision for Tianjin Yiyao as a company, but at the same time also for the further development of the Chinese printing industry as a whole,” says Walter Zehner, general manager of the KBA subsidiary in China.

“The intention behind the stricter import policy, namely, is to encourage the Chinese print industry to shift its emphasis from pure volume production towards quality work. At the moment, the high levies means that only first-class companies are investing in first-class equipment. With the decision to purchase its Rapida 105 universal with coater and UV options, Tianjin Yiyao has laid a stable foundation for the future.”