Photizo: Chinese Government Supports Aftermarket Suppliers

Photizo reports the central government of China has chosen four aftermarket suppliers as its appointed printer consumable distributors for 2014. The four named companies are: Print-Rite Unicorn Image Products; Zhuhai Seine Technology (Ninestar); Beijing Laser Hi-Technology; and Mipo International Limited.

Print-Rite and Ninestar have been listed as selected providers since   2010, but Photizo notes this year’s selection is more important because it’s “the first time the central government requires its buyers in Beijing to purchase aftermarket supplies and buy OEM supplies only when the aftermarket supplies are not available”.

An analyst at Photizo points out that in 2010 the Chinese government began to include aftermarket printer suppliers in the government procurement list. Before that, printer OEMs dominated the supplies market in China’s government sector. The analyst says when the government made aftermarket supplies available to its buyers, “it offered aftermarket supplies firms an opportunity to compete with OEM competitors”.

With this new policy, Photizo believes that aftermarket supplies will gradually gain market share, though many of them complain about the long term battle with the OEMs. When the OEM dominance is impaired in the remarkably profitable government printer supplies market in China, “higher hardware prices in China, or enhanced technology barriers from OEMs” may be the result.