The company is building a new site at Broxbourne, rendering presses at its Wapping site surplus to requirements. It has also replaced presses at Knowsley and Glasgow.

Eight MAN Roland Newsman double-width newspaper presses from the Knowsley site and two from Glasgow have already been sold to plants in Europe.

Another 16 presses will become available as Brox­bourne takes over as News International’s key site. Eight of the presses will be available by the end of this year and the remaining eight in May 2008. The 10 presses at Knowsley and Glasgow are expected to be removed in the next two months.

The global sale is being facilitated by MK Press and Publishing Systems. Also involved in the sale is GoIndustry International, which specialises in the sale of large industrial assets.

MK is talking to printers in North and South America, Russia and the Far East about taking on the remaining Wapping presses.

MK director Rupert McGowan Kemp said: “We consider this a worldwide sale and are looking into many areas. The presses are in excellent condition and would be perfect for almost any printer, just not News International”

• The first test newspapers have been printed at Johnston Press’ new £56m plant at The News Centre
in Hilsea, Portsmouth. Around 35,000 copies of the Worthing Guardian were printed this week.