Why are so many books printed in China？Is it cheaper to print books in China?

Why are so many books printed in China? Is it cheaper to print books in China?

Many people have this questions, as a over 15 years printing trade man in China, my answer is “YES”, the main reason is much cheaper price in China than in North America.

In 2023, the total import and export value of China printing products is reached 16.765 billion US dollars.China imports and exports of printed products involved trade partners from 264 countries and regions. The United States is the largest trading partner of domestic imports and exports of printed matter. Other countries and regions in the top 20 trade partners of domestic imports and exports of printed matter include China's Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Vietnam, among others (see Table 2). The total import and export value of the top 20 trade partners is $12.575 billion, accounting for 75% of the total domestic imports and exports of printed matter.

As we can see there is a big market in printing products, many people chose to printing in China especially in USA. HK. Britain. Why are so many books printed in China? Let’s take a example:

We have a book ready to printing, the book is with details below:

Firstly, we can have a price from a USA printing online quotation, it is :

PRICE: $10,300

Price/pc: $5.15

Then, we use a China online quotation, the result is 28113CNY, it is

Price:  3910USD

Price/pc: 1.96usd/pc

We can see the printing cost in China is much cheaper than cost in USA, but of course, this is not the final cost, we still need to ship the books to USA, and pay the custom tariff as well as the tax.

Suppose we are living in USA ZIP CODE 91440, what’s the shipping cost plus the tax? We can easy find the answer in Alibaba or global logistic company. As the hardcover books weight is 1559lb(picture one), we will be told the shipping cost door to door include tax(DDP) is about 2800USD.

So we have the total cost of book printing in China: 3910USD + 2800USD =6710USD. Compare to 10300USD in USA, we can save about 40%.

The last question is about the lead time, we can’t wait too much time on printing the new books in China. Benefit by the fast and various shipping option from China to USA, shipping books to USA is only need about 23 days to west USA via Matson, and about 30days for other sea shipping.

Plus the book product time about 12-14days. Printing books in China total time is about 35-37 days.

According to above, custom book printing in China is workable and saving cost!

www.sunnywellprint.com