Eat your hearts out, America and Germany... Asia is where the growth is.

A joint study by US and German industry associations has confirmed what people in the Asia-Pacific already knew: That the lion's share of growth in the $400 billion printing industry has 'gone east'.

NPES and VDMA's Phase II project Worldwide Market for Print 2.0: Global Opportunities in Publishing Printing and Marketing & Commercial Printing says that while 71 per cent of publishing print revenues are currently concentrated in China, the US, Japan, the UK and France, the "largest share and fastest pace of future growth" will primarily be among emerging nations in the Asia-Pacific. "India's large market will be the most opportune global bright spot, projected to grow at 8.1 per cent annually, adding $1.2 billion in domestic revenue between 2016-2021, and supplant the UK as the fourth largest publishing printing market," it says. Additionally, projected regional growth in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and China will post annual increases from 6.1-1.2 per cent to 2021.

The 2016 figures were dominated by newspapers ($27 billion globally), magazines ($26 billion) and books ($21 billion), but these worldwide publishing segments will suffer moderate decline - 2.4, 2.2 and 1.2 per cent respectively in local-currency terms.

Indonesia, India and Vietnam also lead growth prospects for marketing and commercial print, valued at a total of $62 billion in 2016. Eighteen of the 26 nations studied are expected to experience positive annual growth from 2017-2021. In 2016, Asia-Pacific (29 per cent) was the second biggest market after Western Europe, but again emerging markets are tipped to post the fastest annual growth - Indonesia with yearly growth in 2017-2021 at 8.2 per cent, India 7.7 per cent, and Vietnam at 6.1 per cent.

Catalogue printing - the second largest segment - is expected to grow 2.7 per cent a year globally.

A joint-member task force from US trade association NPES and the Printing and Paper Technology Association within the German Mechanical Engineering Association (VDMA) worked with a team from The Economist Intelligence Unit to conduct global research and analysis for this study.

The EIU additionally provided a variety of actionable recommendations derived from the research. Those for equipment manufacturers, OEM suppliers, printers and brand owners include:

Utilising the studies to identify and invest in key country markets based on business priorities and regional focus;

Seeking value throughout each area of the supply chain;

Focussing on specialised market niches;

Adapting to changing market dynamics; and,

Improving data analytics in all business areas.

NPES originally published the first WWMP study in 2013, while both the 2016 and 2017 research studies evaluated key country demographics, global and regional printing industry trends, sized the historical markets from 2011-2016, and forecast through 2021. The new is exclusive to NPES and VDMA members.