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China and any free trade agreement that this country signs with it, is the biggest perceived threat that New Zealand printers face.
Releasing some of the preliminary results of its survey at last week’s PrintNZ Focus on the Future conference, CEO Joan Grace said the threat of China engulfing much of the world’s printing work through cheaper labour had dominated the answers to the question: What are the biggest threats for the industry moving forward?She said the answer was consistently China, China, China, with little variation on the theme.
Her comments were borne out by one of the keynote speakers, former print broker and US consultant Margie Dana who said that big US corporates were looking at China and the huge economy definitely posed a threat to American printers.
“While it is not spoken about openly, print buyers are being asked by large corporations and other major clients for information and pricing for work which could be completed in China. If their delivery schedules can be met then they are definitely interested in (taking advantage of) pricing,” she said.
Print buyers were also receiving calls from Chinese printers asking for US clients.
Other perceived threats voiced in the survey included the New Zealand skills shortage, digital substitution and Government policy, although no particular policy was outlined by Grace.
This year’s survey drew 254 responses up from 194 last year and covered a range of industries which employed a total of 6000 people with turnovers totally $1.2 billion.
Grace said the full survey results would be analysed and available at a later date.
