FOCUS-Indian printers ready to cash in on slowdown thrift

By Nandita Bose

MUMBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Indian printers, a rare set likely to benefit from the thrift sparked by the global slowdown, expect more offshoring work to come their way in the next few months, officials and publishers said.

Printing in India can be 20-30 percent cheaper than Europe and around 10 percent cheaper than China and Singapore, said Peter Cunningham, manufacturing manager, Cambridge University Press, which offshores printing to India.

"If anything, the financial savings to be had from printing in India could mean that more offshore work is needed during these times of economic uncertainty," Cunningham said.

Indian firms exported print material worth 29.70 billion rupees in 2007, compared with 10.62 billion rupees in 2006, industry estimates showed.

Offshore orders include books, Bibles, brochures, diaries, calendars and corporate promotional material.

Indian printing industry was worth $12.6 billion in 2006 and is expected to reach $25.1 billion by 2012, according to Capexil, a body set up by the federal commerce ministry.

"We are set to benefit from the crisis because the slowdown essentially means more business as global companies will try even harder to cut costs," said Ritwik Mitra, general secretary, All India Federation of Master Printers.

Offshore orders comprise about 70 percent of the order book of publishing firm MacMillan India Ltd (MACI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and the company expects volumes to rise in the next 7-8 months, Gautam Mukherjee, chief financial officer, told Reuters.