Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-05-15 Origin: Site
According to the latest data from Smithers, the global authority on the printing and packaging market, the worldwide flexographic printing market achieved a substantial value of $230.5 billion in 2024. The newly released market report by Smithers, titled "The Future of Flexographic Printing Market Outlook to 2029," forecasts that the market will maintain a steady growth trajectory in the coming years, with an anticipated total value of $267.2 billion by 2029, all calculated at constant 2023 prices. This indicates that the global flexographic printing market is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3% from 2024 to 2029.
Flexographic printing technology is experiencing growth across a multitude of application sectors, with its performance in the packaging industry being particularly noteworthy, as it dominates the vast majority of the market share in corrugated board printing. This growth is anticipated to persist, driven by economic factors, notably the burgeoning e-commerce sector and robust consumer demand for carton packaging.
Concurrently, steady growth is also expected in areas such as flexible packaging, labels, and folding cartons. It is worth noting that shifts in printing procurement patterns are bolstering the competitiveness of digital printing in the realm of short-run printing. In the label printing sector, digital printing has evolved into a mainstream technology, rivaling traditional flexography in competitiveness. Nonetheless, thanks to the increasingly widespread adoption of hybrid printing presses and the continued strong sales performance of flexographic equipment, the overall output of flexographic printing is projected to remain stable and continue to grow.
From a regional market perspective, Asia, North America, and Western Europe constitute the three core areas of flexographic printing. Collectively, these regions account for 81% of the global flexographic printing output and 83.1% of the market value in 2024, indicating a high degree of market concentration. Looking ahead, the Asian market is expected to experience robust expansion with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% from 2024 to 2029, with India poised to emerge as the fastest-growing national market, showcasing significant market potential. In contrast, North America and Western Europe, being more mature markets for flexographic printing technology, are anticipated to see relatively moderate growth rates, with projected CAGRs of 2.3% and 1.7%, respectively, over the same period.
Despite the overall growth trend in the flexographic printing market, certain application areas such as newspaper printing, bag and sack printing, and envelope printing are expected to witness a decline in output due to the ongoing contraction in market demand. Nonetheless, on a global scale, the total output of flexographic printing remains substantial. In 2024, the worldwide production of flexographic presses reached 8.6 trillion A4 sheets. Looking forward, this figure is projected to further ascend to 10 trillion by 2029, underscoring the immense developmental potential still harbored within the flexographic printing market.
Furthermore, according to the latest report released by Smithers, a global authority in the printing industry, the total market revenue for global sheetfed, heatset, and coldset offset printing is projected to reach a staggering $310.9 billion by 2025. Offset printing technology remains the most widely used traditional analog printing process; however, it is facing multiple challenges across various application sectors, including strong competition from digital printing technologies. It is forecasted that by 2025, sales of digital printing presses will also amount to $175.2 billion.
It is noteworthy that the global economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced the total global printing output. The worldwide printing production notably declined from 49.0 trillion A4 equivalents in 2019 to 44.1 trillion A4 equivalents in 2024, with little indication of a return to pre-pandemic levels. In contrast to this decline in output, the global printing market value experienced only a slight increase during this period, edging up from $887.9 billion in 2019 to $898.0 billion in 2024.
According to a label printing trends development report released by Smithers last year, the total global market value is expected to reach $44.8 billion in 2024, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8% through to 2029. The report highlights that sustainability and digital printing innovations will drive further growth in the sales of printed sleeves and packaging labels. At the turn of the century and in 2023, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for labels in the CPG industry fluctuated as processors depleted inventories built up as contingency measures.
As the market stabilizes, Smithers forecasts that the industry's market value will reach $54.1 billion by 2029, calculated at constant prices, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
3.8%. During the same period, the volume of printed labels is expected to increase from 1.34 trillion A4 print equivalents to 1.66 trillion, representing a CAGR of 4.4%. Flexography remains the predominant process for most long-run label jobs, while sheetfed offset and gravure printing can achieve higher quality. Although digital processes are well-established in the narrow web sector, their output still constitutes only a small fraction of the total contemporary production. Digital printing is ideally suited to meet the demand for shorter print runs, faster turnaround, label version control, and SKU diversification by brand owners across several emerging markets. This has led to a significant increase in digital printing's market share, reaching 21.6% in 2024.
