KBA has signed an order with Dazhong Daily Newspaper Group for a two-section Commander press line to print the Dazhong Daily, one of China's most popular provincial newspapers with a weekday circulation of 400,000 copies. Published in Jinan, the capital of Shandong, the 'Dazhong Daily' celebrated its 70th anniversary in early January. The group’s ten other daily titles include the 'Qilu Evening News' (1.05 million copies) and 'Peninsula City' (900,000), which rank among the world’s 100 highest-circulation newspaper titles. It also publishes five magazine titles and has an active online presence. “We commemorated our jubilee with the biggest single order for new press kit in our history,” says Xu Yan Gang, president. And he says superior KBA technology led to a switch from a previous supplier: "The performance, flexibility and print quality of the Commander press line at the Zhejiang Daily in Hangzhou confirmed KBA’s reputation both in the Chinese newspaper industry and worldwide."The cutting-edge technology will enable us to implement our ambitious production plans.” The Commander will have a cylinder circumference of 1092 mm and be installed early next year at Shandong Dazhong Huatai Printing in Jinan. The group has a second printing plant – one of the biggest in northern China – in Qingdao. The 4/2 press line, which will have a maximum rated output of 170,000 full-colour 32 pp copies per hour, can handle web widths of 1720 mm, 1562mm and 1440mm , adjustable automatically on the fly to accommodate a wide range of different products. It will comprise four Pastomat reelstands, four blanket-to-blanket towers, four turner bars, two folder superstructures with two formers apiece, and two KF 5 jaw folders. Automated features include colour and cut-off register control, cylinder washing, ink pumping, a RIP interface and software for job scheduling and press presetting. The press will be controlled from four EAE consoles. New Schur mailroom technology will also be installed.