A second six-tower press for UBP Printing in Miri City, Serawak, is a “proactive step” to put the company and its flagship ‘United Daily News’ ahead of the market as demand for colour increases.

A new ‘footprint shaftless’ Goss Community SSC with N40 folder to be installed later this year, follows a similar five-tower press commissioned a year ago, and will provide greater flexibility and productivity.

UBP, a subsidiary of United Borneo Press Group, is addressing expected trends and market forces. Says managing director Sim Yong Liang, “Newspaper publishing has been very challenging in this part of the world.

“’United Daily News’ is making a broad move to invest in shaftless SSC technology and ink presetting systems ahead of the rest of the market, as we foresee a growing requirement for more colour pages in newspapers.”

Specified with features to maximise efficiency and reduce waste, the press will be the company’s first installation featuring independent drives for each tower. The ‘footprint shaftless’ configuration allows greater production flexibility and faster set-up. This will be complemented by advanced capabilities including automated press controls, ink-key presetting, zero-speed web splicers, and automatic web break detection.

It will print all-colour broadsheet editions of ‘UDN’ of up to 24 pages, while maintaining better print quality at higher running speeds, says Yong Liang. “Less wastage on the rolls is one of our key objectives,” he says. “The cost of newsprint is continuing to increase and, especially with the current oil prices, we need to minimise set-up waste.

“The Malaysian market is very challenging and requires the publisher to offer precisely the right products for readers. This investment choice is the result of extensive experience and exhaustive testing of the capabilities and the reliability of the Community technology, and with it, ‘UDN’ is on its track to keep growing its readership.”