Although the market share of Japan’s printing industry has decreased by 1.9 trillion yen in the past decade, a decrease of as much as 27%, this does not prevent printing giants such as relief printing Co., Ltd. (Toppan) and greater Japan printing (DNP) from continuing to dominate the world!
The ceiling of today’s global printing industry, US $12.9 billion, is built by Japanese relief printing.
Global printing ceiling
Founded in 1900 and headquartered in Tokyo with 11000 employees, it was originally a printing company and gradually expanded its business to high-tech fields such as semiconductor and digital imaging, including color filter, semiconductor mask, BGA substrate, lead frame, image sensor, etching products, printed circuit board, etc. it is an enterprise with strong cross-border ability.
According to the financial report data disclosed by letterpress printing, as of March 2021, the company has achieved sales of 1.49 trillion yen, about US $12.9 billion, ranking first in the world.
Amko from Australia, a kangaroo country, after acquiring another printing giant Bemis, its revenue soared by 31.82% to US $12.47 billion in fiscal 2020, crowding out the second place of printing in Japan. The revenue of Greater Japan printing in 2020 was US $12.2 billion, slightly behind amko and ranked third.
Regrettably, Donnelly, the world’s leading printing leader ten years ago, recorded a year-on-year decrease of 24.06% in revenue in 2020, worth $4.766 billion, which has been thrown away by the first echelon for several blocks.
Master core printing technology
Similarly, facing the recession of commercial printing, when Nelly’s aging is in sharp contrast to the stride of letterpress printing, what has Toppan done right?
In Bao Xiaobian’s view, the success of letterpress printing lies in its continuous challenge to the limits of printing technology, and is very good at using its core technology obtained in printing to continuously expand its business activities to various new fields, including packaging, security, electronics, digital imaging, and photoconductive luminescence.
Looking through the public information on the Internet, we can learn that the first pot of gold in letterpress printing is mined in the fields of Securities printing and anti-counterfeiting printing by using new technologies. In the early years, many of China’s ID cards, bank cards, credit cards and other card printing were printed by Japanese relief companies, and its influence can be seen.
In the rise and fall of business, successive presidents of letterpress printing adhered to the concept of one step ahead of technology, which established the company’s leading position in the global printing industry.
As early as the late 1950s, relief printing was committed to developing new technologies using printing plate making technology, such as photomask technology, which is unique in the world today.
Today’s letterpress printing is not only the leader of global printing, but also the leader of the global semiconductor industry. It is not too much to say that it controls the fate of global semiconductor chip production.
“Invisible champion” in the field of semiconductor materials
Photomask, that is, lithography mask, also known as mask, is a graphics master mainly used in the lithography process of integrated circuit manufacturing. The raw material of photomask is a mask substrate, which is a photosensitive blank plate for making micro photomask patterns.
In the global semiconductor industry, photomask is a very important material, accounting for 15% of the market space of the semiconductor industry.
The United States is the birthplace of semiconductor technology. Famous enterprises such as Intel and IBM have led the development trend of semiconductor technology for a long time. The relief plate has mastered the advanced mask technology through the cooperation and joint development of IBM. In the field of mask production, American enterprises have also dominated the market in the past, including DuPont. In 2005, DuPont photomask business was acquired by letterpress, which established the market leading position of letterpress.
Today, in the mask market, Japan is at the leading level, and the market share of relief printing has reached 30%. After many acquisitions and technical cooperation, letterpress has continuously extended its product line, growing from a printing company to an invisible champion in the field of semiconductor materials.
Write at the end
According to the latest data released by WSTS World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization in August 2021, the scale of the global semiconductor industry increased from US $204.4 billion in 2000 to US $606.5 billion in 2022, of which the compound growth rate from 2010 to 2022 was 6.09%, faster than that in the first 10 years of the 21st century.
According to cinnor research industry information, recently, the supply and demand of photomask has turned red. Due to insufficient supply and rising prices, the delivery time was delayed. With the deterioration of the supply and demand of photomask, orders have flocked to main suppliers such as Phototronics, Toppan, DNP and TMC, and the price is also rising. It is expected that the prices of high specification products and low specification photomask will rise by 5% ~ 15% and 15% ~ 25% respectively.
It is certain that relief printing will still enjoy the dividend of semiconductor industry in the next few years. Unfortunately, the excitement only belongs to high-tech enterprises such as Japan and the United States. China’s printing industry has a long way to go.
Post time: Dec-02-2021