Are they becoming a real threat to established non-Chinese inkjet vendors?
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For many years, inkjet has been one of the most talked about topics in production print. Now, inkjet equipment from Chinese vendors is becoming an increasingly visible part of that conversation.
For many print service providers (PSPs), printing equipment from China often creates two immediate reactions: interest in lower acquisition costs and concern around quality, reliability, service, parts availability, and long-term distribution stability. Based on our research and conversations with PSPs around the world, the level of concern varies by region.
In the United States, skepticism remains high. This is driven not only by concerns around quality, service, reliability, and support, but also by ongoing trade tensions with China. In Europe, openness is somewhat greater, although buyers remain cautious. In the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia Pacific, Chinese inkjet vendors are gaining more traction due to lower trade barriers, stronger price sensitivity, different service expectations, and varying application requirements.
For US many PSPs already using roll-fed inkjet, the key purchasing priorities remain print quality which includes substrate versatility and productivity including uptime, ease of use, and total output per shift. These are demanding environments, and it remains to be seen how Chinese vendors will compete as they expand into more mature production print markets.
As expected, Chinese inkjet vendors are performing strongly in their domestic market and have done so for many years. In fact, as Keypoint Intelligence tracks cut-sheet and roll-fed inkjet systems—both color and black-and-white—for transactional, direct mail, and publishing applications, Chinese vendors dominate their home market.
What may surprise some observers is how quickly these vendors are growing outside China. In 2025, Chinese inkjet vendors doubled their market share outside their domestic market compared with the previous year for applications such as direct mail, transactional and publishing.
HanGlobal Kirin 660 HD
Central and Eastern Europe was one of the first regions outside China to see measurable placements, beginning in 2022. Asia-Pacific and Western Europe followed in 2023. The Middle East, Africa, and Japan started showing activity in 2024, albeit with very low volumes reported for Japan. To date, we have not seen any Chinese inkjet vendor placements in the US for these application segments but expecting to see in the near future.
Japan is expected to remain a limited opportunity for Chinese inkjet vendors for many of the same reasons that explains their dominance in their own domestic market: local supplier strength, established relationships, and regional buyer preferences.
Atexco VegaPress 440/660 HD
Keypoint Intelligence currently tracks 16 inkjet vendors and 136 press models serving transactional, direct mail, and publishing applications. Our sales tracker analyzes placements by region and some selected countries, with segmentation by color capability and feed type, which includes color vs. black-and-white and cut-sheet vs. roll-fed systems.
The rise of Chinese inkjet vendors is not just a pricing story. It is a market shift that raises important questions for OEMs, print service providers, investors, and technology partners.
PSPs with large roll-fed inkjet capital investments are generally reluctant to switch suppliers unless there’s a clear business benefit or they are experiencing issues with their existing vendors. While it is expected that Chinese vendors will focus more on new business and markets, this will not be an easy task.
We will continue to watch and conduct research on how these Chinese vendors perform and grow outside of China in real production environments, as well as assess which PSP profiles and applications their products are best suited to meet.
For more insight into Chinese inkjet vendors in transactional, direct mail, and publishing applications, contact Keypoint Intelligence to learn about our latest market sizing and trends.
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