People's Daily - one of China's biggest newspaper printers - is adding a 16-page manroland heatset press in its seventh contract with the German maker.

It already has eight Uniset newspaper lines, plus Geoman and Polyman presses.

A new Rotoman HiPrint to be installed in the second half of 2016, will expand existing inhouse insert and magazine production capacity.

The company produces more than 70 different editions with about five million broadsheet copies each day, equivalent to 1.825 billion copies a year. Many editions include commercial inserts, and the People's Daily printing centre also produces a growing number of weekly lifestyle, sports, broadcast and advertising magazines.

Currently production is based on a 15-year-old manroland Polyman press which is no longer able to cope with demand.

In a statement during the signing ceremony, director of People's Daily Wang Jinghu said the centre needed constant high quality with a maximum of flexibility and efficiency: "The Rotoman commercial web is ideal for these demands."

The new technology accompanies investment in a new printing centre in Beijing.

The Rotoman will be equipped with automation options including automatic plate change, ink density, colour register and cut-off control systems, linked to manroland's new ControlCenter and PPM station, to which the Polyman will also be connected.

Capable of 60,000 revolutions per hour, the Rotoman will have a cylinder circumference of 546 mm and maximum web width of 965 mm. A PFC pin folder will have multiple-motor drive and quarterfold.

Pictured from left: Frank Tietsche (manroland web sales vice president), Wang Jinhu, Yang Xinghua (general manager of Beijing People's Printing Business Centre)