By: E&P Staff Singapore Press Holdings announced a $45 million equipment upgrade at its Jurong plant, raising back-to-back color-printing capacity of its 14-year-old Goss Colorliner presses from 24 to 40 broadsheet pages (48 to 80 tabloid pages). Goss International will handle the capacity upgrade to its presses.
Harland Simon and ABB will upgrade the controls. Harland Simon already was hired to upgrade controls for the reelstands (E&P Online, Feb. 22). The project also includes replacement of older ancillary systems, and the entire overhaul is expected to enable the presses to run for another 15 years and increase productivity by 50%.
The upgrade will allow The New Paper, The Business Times and Lianhe Zaobao to meet advertising demands, according to SPH Chairman Tony Tan.
The announcement coincided with another -- that SPH had second-quarter profits of $113.3 million, up from $87 million a year earlier. Tan said that because print remains the company?s core business even as it moves into other areas, it will ?continue improving print products and facilities.?
With upgrades on the first of four presses just completed at what is likely Southeast Asia?s largest printing operation (in all, nine presses comprising 84 units), the project is to be completed in phases by the second half of next year.
SPH also is upgrading to fully digital prepress, with computer-to- plate equipment from Agfa and Glunz & Jensen (E&P Online, Jan. 29 and Feb. 2).
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