Ural Federal University: Problems of the Print Industry Discussed at the University
Ural Federal University hosted XIV Winter Ural Printing Forum “Crisis and Window of Opportunity”. It brought together businessmen, producers, suppliers and other participants of printing market from Ekaterinburg, Perm, Moscow and other Russian cities. This year the forum was dedicated to the discussion of important political and economic problems that could lead to a crisis in the industry.
“This year has been a difficult one for printers as well. That is why the central topic of the forum was the discussion of the current situation in the country and the search for possible anti-crisis solutions. Representatives of paper production and printing houses, suppliers of materials and equipment, and business owners gathered here. They told about the problems they faced first-hand,” said Andrey Tyagunov, one of the organizers of the forum, Head of the Department of Printing and Web-Design.
Thus, representatives of the enterprises spoke about the plans for paper production and solving the problem with the supply of bleaching agents, about the logistics crisis and new schemes of delivery of goods from abroad. They also discussed the situation on the printing equipment market and new ways of production automation. Experts explained how the existing restrictions affect pricing and showed ways to reduce the cost of goods. In their turn, suppliers of printing equipment explained how the cost of imported equipment and consumables is formed now and shared the first results of searching for their analogues.
“The solutions to each problem are strictly individual for each manufacturer or business owner and are formed based on the answers to the questions of urgency, availability and cost of the right technology. But the replacement of equipment and components is successful: we have already tested some items and can say that the quality of printing will not fall when switching to them. We cannot ignore Russian manufacturers who produce high-quality printing equipment. We all understand that the current situation is not easy, but we can survive. The discomfort we all face is a point of growth. It is important to look for our problem areas and deal with them in a targeted way,” said Alexander Koshkarov, manager of Graphic Systems, a printing equipment sales company
As a result of speeches and public discussions, the participants of the forum drafted a written request to the Government of the Russian Federation, where they presented a list of possible measures to support the printing industry. The list included proposals to ease the tax burden for the printing industry, targeted support for Russian producers, organization of events to expand contacts between business, industry and higher scientific school and their effective interaction, etc.
“This is a very important step for us. In fact, we held a public discussion, where various experts, representatives of small business and large industries were gathered together. This is a collegial discussion of possible options to support the industry, and perhaps our proposals will be useful in making decisions by the federal authorities. We will send our appeal to Sergey Stepashin, the head of the Russian Book Union, who will prepare an anti-crisis package of proposals for the Government of the Russian Federation, taking into account our appeal”, explained Andrey Tyagunov.