Smithers report says printing industry’s COVID-19 wound will be healed by 2030

By 2030, the print landscape will be very different to the pre-COVID-19 world. From 2015-2030, the global print and printed packaging market will fall from the equivalent of 49.2 trillion A4 prints, to 41.8 trillion A4s in 2030; down by just over 15 percent. However, the value of the market will grow by nearly 6.8 percent, largely due to changes in the product mix. This forecast comes just as Smithers’ latest research also revealed that the number of people employed by the print industry worldwide has shrunk by 14.8 percent since 2018.

Additionally, the number of print businesses declined in the same period from 667,630 in 2018 to 587,934 in 2022, a drop of 11.9 percent. However, a revival of normal business activity since 2021 will see the print market continue to rebound slightly to reach US$752.8 billion. Value growth will return to push the market to US$846 billion by 2030, says the Smithers report. Smithers analysts believe that the COVID-19/pandemic crisis will continue to accelerate the trends that were already in the market. These trends will lead to profound changes in print markets by 2030.