Newspaper & Mailroom

Newspaper printer Guizhou Ribao chooses UNISET

Wednesday 31. October 2012 - Hybrid newspaper presses from manroland web systems enjoy continued popularity in China

The newspaper Guizhou Ribao delivers the latest news to the province of the same name in southwest China. In the provincial capital Guiyang, the Guizhou Ribao Press Group has made strong investments in a new printing center: a new UNISET was chosen to ensure the desired increase in capacity.
Guizhou Province is known as the home of the Chinese liquor Maotai. Nevertheless, when it came to choosing a new newspaper press, the approach taken by customer Guizhou Ribao was markedly sober. The printing house had not imported a press for many years. The new system turned out to be a UNISET press from manroland web systems: in its hybrid configuration with dryer, the eight-page web press combines all the possibilities of heatset and coldset production in a single press. At the same time, it also fulfills the growing demands in China for more pages and color, as well as better printing quality. The decision for the UNISET was not left to chance, but proceeded by a careful consultation process. Guizhou executives spoke with printing companies such as Sichuan Ribao and Anhui Ribao, both of which had recently started production on UNISET hybrid presses in China.
These experiences were convincing and the contract for the UNISET was signed on September 17, 2012. Mr. Yao Yuan, the managing directer and Mr. Liu Qingying, the general manager of Guizhou Ribao Press Group, Mr. Dong Kerong, the general manager of Guizhou Ribao Printing Center attended the contract signing event. Dr. Frank Tietsche, Vice President Sales at manroland web systems, welcomes the new customer: “Guizhou Ribao scrutinized all the options very critically and intensely before making this investment. After this intensive selection process, the delegation was most convinced by the technology and concept from manroland web systems. This is the first milestone in our new partnership, in which we are now poised to demonstrate our competence with excellent project management.”
Investment sends a strong signal
Guizhou Province is striving to increase its role in the economic upturn in China. A major investment such as the new printing center in Guiyang makes a bold statement, with approximately RMB 200 million (nearly 25 million Euros) invested in 83,000 square meters. The UNISET press will move into the facility, which is currently under construction, with existing printing systems. The UNISET configuration consists of four eight-couple towers, two folders, four reel splicers, and a dryer with integrated afterburner. The maximum production speed is 80,000 copies per hour in non-collect runs and 40,000 copies per hour in collect runs, or 35,000 copies per hour in collect runs for heatset products. With 145 employees, the Guizhou Group prints over 40 publications, including various business newspapers and news magazines. The new UNISET will boost capacities in coldset and heatset printing to 660,000 broadsheet pages per hour, from the current figure of 897 million broadsheet pages each year to 1.2 billion.