KBA marketing director Klaus Schmidt said that NI could opt for a line of triple-width KBA Commanders, which have six plates across by two around.
"There aren't that many big projects around at the moment. We are in negotiations with News International, as is another supplier Ð but we won't know if we have it until the fourth quarter," said Schmidt.
KBA's interim results show that its sheetfed operations have fared better than its web business, which will continue to struggle in the second half of the year unless the economy revives.
Group sales rose 10.4% to £435.6m (Û685.8m) in the first six months, but net income fell 26.2% to £5.9m. Sales in the sheetfed sector rose 13.7% to £223.8m, while sales of web presses were up 7.1% to £211.8m.
But the group's order intake for the period was down 26.6%, while the order intake for web presses fell 43.5%.
Schmidt said KBA had gained market share in the smaller-format sheetfed market. But overcapacity and the on-going trough in the advertising market had hit web sales, he added.
President Reinhart Siewert did not expect the newspaper and commercial print markets to improve until 2003.
Story by John Davies
