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Update — Computer to plate sales triple year on year

Newspapers take the plunge - CtP sales to double this year
February 09, 2005 | By Naresh Khanna

We wrote in our CtP Special Issue in July 2003, that from 10 installations the jump in the current financial year ending 31 March 2004 would be in the order of 25 or 30 installations. Our predictions seem to have come true and will possibly be exceeded by that time. Thus far we know of 31 installations that should be complete by the end of the financial year. It is quite possible that the 11 per cent reduction in customs duties by the government's vote on account has helped to confirm orders that might have drifted into the next year.

In the previous year (02-03), newspapers bought zero CtP devices and this year they have already bought and will have installed 14 if we take into account Deccan Chronicle's 4 CtP's (of two Creo Trendsetter News 100 and two Trendsetter News 70 platesetters). We know of at least 8 more newspaper installations that are expected to take place in mid-April. This should give the next financial year’s CtP count a jump-start. Being a drupa year, and with Indian newspapers having entered the fray, we are predicting installation of between 60 to 65 CtP’s in the coming 2004-05 financial year.

Newspapers
The bulk of the newspaper CtP sales this year have gone to Agfa with two to Ananda Bazaar Patrika in Kolkata and five to the Chennai based Hindu group. Three Krause CtPs have been installed by The Hindustan Times in their Noida Cityline plant. Four Creo Trendsetters News have been bought by the Deccan Chronicle group based in Hyderabad. Eight more CtPs are coming to newspapers in April — seven Agfa’s to the Manorama group based in Kottayam, three Agfa Polaris SXVs and four 3850 silver violet CtP units at seven out of the nine printing plants that currently use per page, one film and up to two plates. One Escher-Grad Cobalt is coming to Dinamalaar in Chennai. Thus the coming financial year should see many Indian newspaper groups buy their first CtPs.

Newspapers in India are extremely heterogeneous, with even large groups outputting translucent media on laserprinters and then exposing presensitised plates for some of their black and white pages. In the larger editions, several plates are made from the same film, which also skews the costs away from CtP. Nevertheless, the new mantra in newspapers is that if only one plate is needed, CtP is profitable, and if two plates are needed to complete a press run, CtP is still viable. It is likely that newspapers will buy anywhere from 24 to 30 CtP devices in the coming financial year.

Commercial printers
Commercial printers have stuck to thermal CtP thus far and if present trends continue the 17 devices this year should increase to anywhere from 25 to 30 platesetters this year. Although this market is almost evenly divided between Screen and Creo, Heidelberg has also finally opened its account. Of interest in this segment is the jump that many commercial printers are making to full digital workflow and CtP without ever having had even an imagesetter in the past.