The year the equipment backlog vanished: global print competed on uptime quality, not press counts
The global print market was $910.8B, but equipment sales were only $16.8B. In 2023, the question wasn’t “what to buy?”—it was “what not to renew yet?”
In 2023, the mood in global printing shifted less on macro talk and more on equipment reality. The presses everyone had been waiting for finally arrived—and the backlog began to unwind. But new orders normalized, and the old assumption returned: volumes won’t suddenly surge. Over the year, investment logic started moving from “add capacity” to “raise the quality of running.”
Gathered with AI. Thought through on the shop floor. Written for the future of print.
BPJ WIRE: stories selected and drafted by the BPJ desk from world news, fact-checked against the source ledger — published alongside the editor's own picks.
Coverage: 2023 · Written: Aug 20, 2026. Market reports are written after official statistics for the period are released. US BLS indexes include preliminary values, which may be revised for up to four months.
Translated from Japanese by AI. The Japanese original is authoritative.
Smithers puts the 2023 global print market at about $910.8 billion. In the same framing, it puts 2023 print volume at 44.67 trillion A4-equivalent prints. It also puts 2023 global print equipment sales at $16.8 billion.
What matters in a year-end view is not turning these into three separate headlines. Even with $910.8 billion of work circulating, equipment sales stay at $16.8 billion. And even at a massive 44.67 trillion A4-equivalents, volume does not suddenly jump.…
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Sources
- BOBST Investors (Ad hoc release) / 2024-02-27
- Smithers (記事: Digital and packaging to power growth...) / 2024-01
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 生産者物価指数（系列 WPU0913・公開APIから取得）
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 生産者物価指数（系列 WPU0911・公開APIから取得）
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 生産者物価指数（系列 WPU0914・公開APIから取得）
- HEIDELBERG 年次報告 2023/24 (PDF) / 2024-06-11
- Smithers（folding carton 市場予測記事） / 2023-05
- BOBST Investors（2023 First half-year results）
- KOMORI Integrated Report 2023 (PDF)
- Fastmarkets（FOEX notice） / 2023-06-06
- Siegwerk Facts & Figures（FactSheet 2024） / 2024
- DIC統合報告書 2024 detail (PDF) / 2024
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