November 19, 2007 -- Eastman Kodak Company opened the world's newest printing plate manufacturing facility in Xiamen on November 6. The new facility will produce both digital and conventional printing plates for the growing China market and Asia Pacific region. Kodak already has other operations set up in Xiamen, and will incorporate those resources into the new printing plate production.

"Many of our employees come from Kodak's other operations in Xiamen," John Robinson, general manager and vice president, Printing Plate Business, Prepress Solutions, for Kodak said in a press release. "They are skilled in the process manufacturing required for high-quality plate production, as well as in Kodak's quality standards and manufacturing practices."

According to a report by the Printing and Printing Equipment Industries Association of China, total output of China's printing industry is growing rapidly.

"Output value of China's printing industry reached 380 billion yuan (US$51 billion) in 2006, up 12.63 percent over the previous year," the report states. The most prolific sector was package printing, which accounted for over 30 per cent of total output value for China's printing industry.

The overall plate printing market in China is on the rise, but it is a divided market.

"On one side, we have a lot of production lines with very low technology "content", some of them even manual without proper quality inspection," Geng Tian, PR Director of Kodak Greater China Region told Emerging China. "On the other side, some of the latest plate production lines are built in China, such as the new Kodak facility. This quality difference is also reflected in the plate prices - domestic plates are two thirds or even half the price of imported ones, with materials."

The facility's inkjet print projects will be for export only, mainly to the United States and Europe. The company projects exports of $40 million for 2007, a number that is expected to rise to $150 million by 2008. The manufacture of digital printing plates will be for markets in China and the Asia-Pacific region. Total investment in the digital printing plate facility was $96 million.

Kodak does not expect and immediate return on their investment.

"In general, there is over capacity in the Chinese plate manufacturing industry. This drives the price down to a non-profitable and unsustainable level for many small manufacturers, who are generally expected to be eliminated from the market in the next few years," said Geng. "This digital part of the market is what Kodak is manufacturing in Xiamen. We expect this plate market will eventually come back to a healthy level of profitability after a few rounds of consolidation in the next few years."

Kodak's new manufacturing facility in Xiamen occupies nearly 50,000 square meters, mainly computer-to-plate production materials and proofing equipment.