BMI Releases Industry Barometer Survey Results for April 2023
The Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI) released the April results for its monthly survey on capacity and lead times for soft cover and hard cover books. This month’s survey also featured an update to the questions, factoring in both digital and offset printing methods. In looking at digital printing, the average hard cover capacity stayed about the same, only dropping 1 point to 64%. Lead time for digital hard cover books dropped from 17 days to 13 days. Digital soft cover books are running at 70% capacity and 12 days lead time. Both of those numbers are slightly up from March. According to responses regarding offset printing, hard cover manufacturers are running at 57% of their capacity, which is 9% less than last month. Lead times are down from 37 days to 22. The average soft cover offset capacity usage is down to 68% from 78%. Offset soft cover lead time down to 31 days from 35.