Information Agency «Business-Inform» (Moscow) has finished the research cycle of the New-Built Compatible Cartridges Quality in Russia Market for 2015. The results showed that the growth in demand for new-built cartridges on the Russian market is caused by quite objective reasons. The chief of them is the necessity for saving. In addition to it there is a new legislative requirement of only new non-remanufactured cartridges state procurements admissibility (in most cases). However, Russian buyer-companies find themselves in different conditions. Some have to put in bids and buy cartridges offered for minimal price, some have a possibility to choose between suppliers and cartridge brands judging by the product quality and supplier-company image, others have a possibility of making independent (alternative) cartridge-procurements. As a result, the quality of compatible cartridges used in Russian companies differs considerably, from very high (virtually indistinguishable from OEM) to quite low. Also the percentage of defects in various shipments differs considerably too. The quality analysis of new-built compatible cartridges supplied on the Russian market during 2013-2015 showed that:
- a) The average quality of cartridges is gradually growing, which is explained by both growing Chinese manufacturing companies’ professionalism and growing “scrupulousness” of Russian buyers.
- b) The biggest demand on the Russian market is either for cheap low quality cartridges (as a rule they are shipped according to the bidding results), or for more expensive cartridges with considerably higher quality (as a rule they are bought by commercial companies, who decided to refuse buying only OEM-cartridges, or by companies providing outsourcing services for VIP clients).
- c) The growth of low quality cartridges procurements increased considerably in the second half of 2015.
The last of the tendencies needs a more detailed description. In the first half of the year the share of high (Premium) quality compatible cartridges procurements was much higher than in the second half. In the first half of 2015 the considerable part of Russian corporate buyers was in possession of funds to buy quality compatible products. And the procurements were made by both groups: buyers traditionally striving to provide quality office printing, and traditional OEM-cartridges users. In the second half of 2015 Russian corporate buyers had to strengthen the “policy of economy”: those traditionally buying compatible cartridges had to lower their requirements, and a large part of those traditionally using OEM-cartridges, who didn’t use their chance earlier (in the first half of the year) to save and start buying high quality compatible cartridges, was forced to a quick transition to medium quality cartridges procurement. In addition to that the finance shortage that occurred with many state and commercial organizations became a reason of making bids on the cheapest compatible cartridges.
