02.02.2019
The Russian Market
of Printing Materials for Laser Printing - 2018
TheInformation Agency “Business-Inform” (Moscow)
has finished the cycle of research dedicated to the Russian market of office
printing 2018.
The main results are:
The sales of newly-built compatible
cartridges have grown. 13.9 mln.pcs. were sold (+6.1%).
The number of refills/remans
has grown. Total of
41.1 mln. pcs (+11.2%).
The sales of OEM
cartridges have diminished. 8.1 mln. pcs. sold (-5.8%).
The
growth of non-OEM (compatible) consumables sales is caused not by the growth of
office printing (the number of office-printed pages has fallen by 3%), but by a
serious deterioration of an “average” compatible newly-built cartridge quality,
as well as of an “average” remanufactured newly-built cartridge. The tendency
to buy cheaper cartridge as well as the orientation on cheaper price by the
majority of Russian corporate procurements caused the surge of low-quality
products sales. Despite this being evidently ineffective approach (an “average”
newly-built compatible cartridge, bought within the framework of tender
procurements, prints only 40% of the stated yield), the urge to buy cheaper
cartridges (“they are all the same, anyway” thinking) remains the main driver
of the Russian market.
The growth
in the number of refills is also largely connected to the desire to save and
refill purchased newly-built compatibles even despite their evident low
quality.
The share of
refills/remans for compatible newly-built cartridges has grown, and in 2018 it reached 42% from the
general number of refills/remans.
The tendency
of the Russian buyer to buy the cheapest possible cartridge + his/her technical
illiteracy and boundless faith in internet and friend (“grapevine”) has caused the surge in the
number of Russian regional brands, many of them representing one and
the same Chinese manufacturer brand.
The analysis
of toner used in cheap cartridges and cheap refills showed the presence of particles
smaller than 5 micrometers, which poses the threat to the health of office
workers inside the room with a working low-quality filled cartridge.
Also the
analysis of the Russian-market-sold laser compatible newly-built cartridges frames
showed that most of them contain DecaBDE compound in the amounts of raging from
1500 to 19500 mg/kg, i.e. the frames of the majority of newly-built laser compatible
cartridges contain POP (persistent organic pollutant) in dangerous
amounts and must be viewed as toxic waste not suitable for recycling but for
disposal only.
Details - in the BUSINESS-INFORM Review (issue 23, 2019) magazine and in the reports of Malinsky Stanislav at the BUSINESS-INFORM 2019 Expo (May 15 and 16, 2019)