Producer
Amity Printing Company
World's largest Bible printer (Nanjing); has produced 270M+ Bibles and specializes in the thin-paper printing/binding that makes China the dominant Bible source.
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Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
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Facilities
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2 inputs Amity Printing Company supplies
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Bible Printing (Domestic China)
55%Bible Printing (Export / International)
40%Specialty Thin-Paper Publications
5%
Intelligence
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Concentration2019
The majority of Bibles sold at Walmart, Amazon, LifeWay Christian Stores, and church bookstores in the United States were printed in Nanjing, China at Amity Printing — a factory operating under joint venture with a Chinese government-authorized religious organization. The US evangelical Christian market's primary Scripture supply chain runs through a Chinese factory that requires approval from China's State Administration for Religious Affairs for its production. Every tariff escalation, shipping disruption, or US-China geopolitical confrontation is also a Bible supply chain disruption event. In 2019-2020, US Christian publishers quietly scrambled to assess their China Bible printing dependency as the Trump administration's tariffs targeted books — a category that included religious texts — printed in China.
Religion Dispatches ↗Did you know2022
Amity Printing is one of the world's largest consumers of "Bible paper" — ultra-thin, high-opacity paper (typically 28-40 gsm, 30-40 microns thick) that allows thousands of pages to fit in a pocket-sized volume. Bible paper is manufactured by a small number of specialty mills: Sappi (South Africa/Germany), Scheufelen (Germany), and a few Chinese producers. The same thin paper used for Bibles is also used for dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, Oxford), legal reference volumes, and high-page-count reference books. A Bible paper shortage (as occurred briefly during the 2021-2022 paper shortage driven by pandemic disruptions) simultaneously affects Bible printing, dictionary publishing, and reference book production — all through the same specialty thin-paper supply chain.
Publishers Weekly ↗Origin2024
Amity Printing Company was established in 1988 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province as a joint venture between the Amity Foundation (a Chinese Christian charity authorized by the Chinese government) and the United Bible Societies (the international Christian organization). The Amity Foundation is affiliated with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement — the official Chinese Protestant church body recognized by the Communist Party. Amity Printing was explicitly approved by the Chinese government as a controlled outlet for religious text production, allowing Bible printing in China under state supervision. The world's largest Bible printing operation exists because the Chinese Communist Party in 1988 decided to allow controlled religious publishing rather than ban it entirely — and that decision, made in Nanjing, now supplies approximately one-third of the world's Bible output.
Amity Printing Company ↗