Is that ‘deal’ really off? Not all the IfraExpo talk is about technology

If you believe that IfraExpo is about new technology releases and new order announcements, this year’s Vienna show had both – incluing two plate transport systems – liberally laced with a kind of pragmatic wonder that things in the supply industry weren’t worse. But the buzz around the halls centred around another story which has to do with how bad things are: The ‘are they, aren’t they’ saga of a mooted merger between German press makers Heidelberg and manroland, writes Peter Coleman. After what might have been an agency report that talks had been terminated was mentioned during a media event held by German rival KBA, members of the trade press were agog to see what manroland chairman Gerd Finkbeiner would say at the company’s own late-afternoon press conference. Instead, after greeting guests he – somewhat uncharacteristically – opted to take no part in presentations of sales and technology. When a direct question drew him from a seat at the back to the room, it was an emotional and stern-faced Finkbeiner who said he would not comment on rumors: “This is a clear business of the shareholders, and I respect that,” he said. And that was pretty much it. Last week Heidelberg, which is no longer directly involved as an equipment supplier to the newspaper industry (but is a minority shareholder in Goss International), had detailed the extent of its own woes in two announcements: The first reported agreement on cutting about 1500 jobs at the company's German in the 2009/2010 financial year, while the second said a “positive business trend of individual markets in Europe and Asia” would not compensate for the lack of orders in the USA, Japan and some European markets, and forecast a loss of 110-150 million Euros for the year. What happens if there is no merger is anyone’s guess, but abandonment of the talks the market believes are taking place will do neither party any good. But back to the show: For manroland and KBA – the latter in cooperation with plate register specialist Beil – the technology focus was on transport to link CTP output with press loading systems. manroland’s ‘one touch’ approach to automation moves upstream with logistics to load plates and transport them to the previously-announced APL robot … and there’s an extra robot to sort things out in the plateroom is necessary. The KBA/Beil solution does much the same thing to load and transport plate cassettes for automatic press loading. Each user will need to draw their own conclusions about the worth of such automation, but manroland’s Peter Kuisle points to its Osnabruck customer, which was able to install two presses instead of three to meet its multi-edition requirements. Savings of ten minutes per change have been quoted, and in some cases the press can be webbed up while plates are being loaded. KBA says it is talking to customers in New York and Germany about its PlateTrans system, while manroland has installations underway at the ‘Times of India’ in Mumbai, as well as in Germany. Both makers had press sales to report, with manroland adding a Spanish customer’s pre-show double-width Colorman deal to a year which includes nine Uniset presses bound for China. Elsewhere, Goss had sold a second double-width Newsliner for central China’s ‘Xi’ang Daily’ print centre – this one with an Innotech prefolder to produce panoramas – and a Community upgrade in Greece. Tensor announced a contract from the Yemen News Agency (SABA) for a six-unit T-400BE single-width press with a quarterfolder. From Ferag – which was showing the high-speed StreamFolder system it announced a fortnight ago – came news that Sydney-based Hannanprint has added a further gatherer-stitcher to the systems it has installed over the last nine years. Despite the relative shortage of good news – and the Asia-Pacific is clearly better placed than most other regions – exhibitors and organizers are optimistic. Some 284 exhibitors from 27 countries are in Vienna, making a pitch to visitors from more than 80 countries. Reiner Mittelbach, joint chief executive of WAN-Ifra, says very few events before this 39th IfraExpo have taken place in such a challenging media environment: “We are all the more pleased with the turnout”. And the organisation’s vice-president, Horst Pirker was encouraged by support for the show despite the “double crisis” facing the industry. • The IfraExpo continues until Thursday. Full report in GXpress November.