Inside the workshop of Guangdong Kelin Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Kelin Digital”), 11 HP Indigo digital printing devices are running at high speed, printing “digital IDs” for various consumer goods. “We have been in a busy state since September,” said Lan Qiang, general manager of the company, who has been rushing between production lines. To cope with the order peak, the company will also add equipment and set up a “rapid response team”.
This bustling scene is a vivid microcosm of Jiangmen’s printing industry sprinting for the fourth quarter of this year. As Jiangmen’s largest cultural industry, its output value accounts for more than half of the city’s cultural industry, and it is also a traditional advantageous industry and an important pillar of Jiangmen’s industrial economy. At present, the whole city is fully sprinting for the conclusion of the “14th Five-Year Plan” and laying out the high-quality development of the “15th Five-Year Plan”. The sprinting posture, transformation depth and future planning of the printing industry have become an important window to observe the resilience and vitality of Jiangmen’s manufacturing industry.
Playing the Symphony of Sprinting for the Fourth Quarter
Heshan Artprinting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Artprinting”) is an important export enterprise in our city. Due to the concentrated release of overseas supply demand for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the first three quarters, the company’s business peak has also advanced accordingly. “In the fourth quarter, our focus shifted to the strategic planning and deployment for the next year,” introduced Li Boli, a doctoral engineer at Artprinting. At present, Artprinting is making in-depth layout: optimizing production lines, reviewing the five-year development, and planning the connection with the “15th Five-Year Plan” strategy. This balanced rhythm reflects the stability of mature enterprises in the global market.
At the same time, enterprises deeply engaged in the domestic market have also ushered in the annual business peak. Jiangmen Bensen Packaging Co., Ltd., which provides supporting services for many FMCG brands, is operating at full capacity. Su Chuanliang, the company’s manager, said that the company’s output has continued to climb in the fourth quarter.
Changes in market rhythm are also testing enterprises’ ability to meet challenges.
Huang Zhen, general manager of Guangdong Xingyi Digital Printing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xingyi Digital”), frankly said that with some customers transferring their production capacity to Southeast Asia, the company’s order structure is undergoing profound adjustments. “Since last year, 8 out of the company’s top 10 customers have transferred their orders.” Despite the pressure, Xingyi Digital still achieved double-digit growth in the first half of 2025. Huang Zhen attributed this to practicing “internal skills” – the “digital twin factory” and the full-process digital system built by the enterprise, like an “industrial brain”, can process more than 5,000 work orders and millions of data streams every month in real time, and accurately balance efficiency, quality and cost amid changing demands.
From Artprinting’s overall planning, to Kelin Digital and Bensen Packaging’s production capacity sprint, and then to Xingyi Digital’s efficiency improvement, the fourth-quarter picture of Jiangmen’s printing industry is not a homogeneous hustle and bustle, but a symphony with rich levels and respective strengths, jointly interpreting the diversified connotations of “sprinting”.
Empowering Industrial “Evolution” with “Intelligence” and “Greenness”
Behind the diversified sprint lies the profound accumulation of Jiangmen’s printing industry on the track of intelligence and greenization since the “14th Five-Year Plan”. Jiangmen has vigorously promoted the informatization and intelligence transformation of the industry, and encouraged leading enterprises such as Artprinting, Hung Hing Printing and Xingyi Digital to build smart factories. This five-year answer sheet has not only provided confidence for the current sprint of Jiangmen’s printing industry, but also clearly outlined the “evolution” track of the industry.
Intelligent manufacturing has transformed from a concept into a key support for driving production reform. At Artprinting, the transformation of the “Leo Dream Factory” is like a quiet but profound current. Automated equipment, manipulators and intelligent logistics systems together build a data-driven production process, promoting the company’s leap from labor-intensive to highly automated.
At Xingyi Digital, digitalization has become the cornerstone of the enterprise’s survival. In 2017, Xingyi Digital became the first printing enterprise in China to have 4 Heidelberg full-format configuration automatic logistics systems, and also one of the first enterprises to adopt 5G intelligent twin factory management. By establishing a complete set of digital printing production system, the company has realized 5G+ full-scenario coverage and digital control of the entire manufacturing process, truly achieving the intelligent management of “one screen for the whole network, one network for global management”.
Green transformation has upgraded from a compliance requirement to an enterprise’s value pursuit. Artprinting has formulated a clear carbon neutrality roadmap, aiming to reduce carbon emission intensity by 25% in 2025 compared with 2019, and continue to advance through measures such as renewable energy utilization and efficiency improvement. The new factory of Xingyi Digital has integrated green genes from the initial design, and its energy efficiency is expected to be increased by more than 20%.
The underlying engine driving this profound change is continuous technological and product innovation. In 2023, the China Children’s Book Printing Innovation Research Center settled in Artprinting, focusing on tackling technical problems in the industry. Artprinting has set up dual centers for product R&D and equipment R&D, and maintained its leading position in the high-end market through the “dual-wheel drive” of processes and materials. Its 10-year deep cultivation achievements in the field of children’s interactive books – nearly 100 innovative concepts and more than 30 patents – have now been transformed into high-value-added products such as the Magic Paper World series, occupying a high ground in the global creative supply chain.
Kelin Digital is expanding the application and value of printed products through technological innovation. “Through the ‘one item, one code’ technology, we endow products with unique digital IDs,” said Lan Qiang. This turns labels from static identifiers into dynamic data nodes connecting brands, channels and consumers, helping thousands of industries realize digital management and marketing. Innovation is constantly breaking traditional boundaries and opening up new blue oceans of value.
The transformation and innovation of enterprises resonate with Jiangmen’s top-level design. The Publicity Department of the Municipal Party Committee issued the “Implementation Opinions on Prosperously Developing the Press and Publication Undertakings”, launching 18 supporting policies, making efforts from multiple dimensions such as funds, approval and copyright, clearly cultivating a printing industry cluster led by Heshan and coordinated by Pengjiang and Xinhui, and promoting the scale upgrading, quality optimization and innovative development of printing enterprises in the city. Greenization, digitalization, intelligence and integration transformation have been listed as top priorities. Relevant departments have actively strived for policy and fund support, and given special support to qualified digital transformation projects of printing enterprises.
Looking Forward to the “15th Five-Year Plan” and Accumulating Strength for a New Chapter
Standing at the historical intersection of the conclusion of the “14th Five-Year Plan” and the opening of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, Jiangmen’s printing enterprises look forward to the future with both a keen grasp of industry trends and in-depth thinking on integrating into regional development.
Facing the “15th Five-Year Plan”, each enterprise has a clear blueprint: Artprinting plans a “four-wheel drive” strategy with technological innovation, business transformation, digital intelligence, lean production and green sustainability as the core. Li Boli specifically mentioned that Artprinting is introducing AI technology at a high speed, building a comprehensive enterprise-level intelligent hub, and vigorously introducing and promoting the full-process application of new equipment such as AMR autonomous mobile robots, quadruped robots and unmanned aerial vehicles; Kelin Digital focuses on “deepening the core and expanding the extension”. Lan Qiang revealed that it is exploring the construction of a “cloud-based label AI verification system” to promote the company’s transformation from a product supplier to a “product + technology” provider; Bensen Packaging plans to invest more than 10 million yuan in 2026 for intelligent upgrades such as AGV unmanned forklifts and RFID systems; Xingyi Digital’s new factory is highly anticipated and is expected to become a new regional industry landmark…
These plans all point to one core: forging competitiveness for the future by developing new productive forces.
Leading enterprises are also thinking about how to better play the role of “chain leaders”. Li Boli said that Artprinting hopes to rely on its world-leading children’s book printing capacity and the innovation research center platform to help Jiangmen build the industrial brand of “China Children’s Book Printing City”. Huang Zhen expects Xingyi Digital to become a “business card” for Jiangmen’s investment promotion, and actively promote the sharing of intelligent manufacturing experience: “Open data to suppliers and peers to make progress together”. This shift in vision from “improving oneself alone” to “benefiting the industry together” indicates that Jiangmen’s printing industry will move towards high-quality development in a more coordinated ecosystem.
Efficient approval and strong supervision are accelerators for industry development. Jiangmen has further promoted the reform of “streamlining administration, delegating power, improving regulation and optimizing services”, implemented “one-click” approval services, transforming the access and operation matters related to the production and operation of press and publication enterprises from “one application per matter, serial approval” to “one declaration, parallel processing”; at the same time, it has strengthened copyright protection, established a sustainable talent training model, and gathered joint efforts to make this traditional advantageous industry glow with new vitality in the new era.
As night falls, every smart label in Kelin Digital’s workshop is adding new nodes to the digital world, the planning room of Artprinting is outlining cutting-edge technology blueprints, the “twin factory” of Xingyi Digital is previewing the optimal scheduling in the virtual space, and the automation plan of Bensen Packaging is also advancing steadily… These scenes converge into the strong pulse of Jiangmen’s printing industry sprinting for the fourth quarter: laying a solid foundation for the conclusion of the “14th Five-Year Plan” with current hard work, and accumulating strength for the start of the “15th Five-Year Plan” with forward-looking layout. In the tide of the times, they are building the foundation with wisdom and depicting the voyage with greenness.
