Global ink market outlook

Although the overall growth of the global ink market has slowed down in the past few years, some products have good prospects. Several major ink manufacturers and suppliers have targeted industrial inkjet printing, security, and ultraviolet (UV)/radiation (EB) inks.

The global ink market has a value of approximately US$13.8 billion, of which the North American market is the largest with approximately US$5 billion, followed by Asia Pacific with US$3.6 billion, Western Europe with US$3.2 billion, Eastern Europe with 800 million U.S. dollars, and other countries with 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. In general, the growth of the global ink market in 2002 was flat, and it is estimated that the growth rate in 2003 was only 0.8%.

In 2001, the market value of US ink was US$4.24 billion, of which lithography was the largest consumer sector, accounting for 42%, followed by 24% of rubber flexo ink, gravure printing 14%, screen printing 4%, letterpress printing 3%, and inkjet printing. %, other applications 10%.

In the United States, the annual value of raw materials used for ink production is nearly 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, or about 2.01 billion 1b. By mass, solvents such as hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon oils, and oxidants accounted for 46%, resins and varnish 27%, and pigments (inorganic, organic, and carbon black) accounted for 23%. In terms of value, pigments and carbon black accounted for 51%, resins, varnish and rosin 34%, solvents 10%, additives 4%.

In recent years, ink companies have been merging, with the top 10 ink companies accounting for nearly 65% ​​of the U.S. market share. The largest is Sun Chemical, followed by Flint Ink.

Mergers and Acquisitions

In March, Flint acquired the global thermosetting and coldset ink business of Swiss Sikhbai, the fifth largest commercial ink producer in the United States and a leading European company. In exchange, Sikhby received the global business of printing safety inks for Flint banknotes and other bills. The transaction does not include technology that Flint is developing in trademark protection and supply chain management.

The business acquired from Sikhbaa will be integrated into Flint-Schmidt (FS) branch of Flint in Europe. FS is one of the three largest ink companies, producing rotary gravure inks and thermosetting and cold-setting inks with annual sales of 400 million U.S. dollars. It was established after Flint merged with German company Gebr. Schmidt in Europe in 2002. . Flint also acquired Gebr. Schmidt’s business in Canada. Sicpa will further strengthen its packaging ink business after selling its thermoset and coldset ink business.

Flint established a new company, Jetrion, in January to provide industrial inkjet printing products, services and custom printing solutions. The new company’s goal is to become a leading supplier of conductive and advanced printing inks and printed electronics technologies and processes. Flint also turned his attention to the Chinese newspaper printing ink market. In May 2002, the company signed an agreement with GraphicTech (GT) to establish a Fulin Ink (Beijing) printing ink company in Beijing. GT is a Flint product distributor in Hong Kong and China. The joint venture built an ink production plant in the Daxing Industrial Development Zone in Beijing and plans to start production in the fourth quarter.

Sun Chemical Company acquired Assemblage In-termoleculaire en Chimie in October 2002
A 50% share of Organique (AIC), which is a French pigment, additive and ink company, produces multifunctional additives for the security and specialty ink markets.

Actively expand production

Siegwerk, Germany plans to invest 75 million euros in 2004 to develop the ink business, including investing 1.5 million euros in Warsaw to build a state-of-the-art dosing device, an application technology laboratory and a factory to further expand the impact in Poland and Eastern Europe force. The dosing device makes it possible to supply specialized inks and basic inks from the company headquarters to Warsaw. Recently, the company also established a new sales company Siegwerk ink in the UK and set up a wholly-owned company in Brazil.

Siegwerk also plans to expand its presence in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Sensient established a technical pigments company with an ink business. In order to expand its business in Europe, in 2002, it acquired SynTec, a company specializing in dyes and chemicals for imaging in Germany, and a special ink and dye company for Swiss ECS. The acquisition of Syntec enabled Sensient to acquire the organic light emitting diode (OLED) chemicals business. In 2001 Sensient acquired the industrial dye business of the Kronpton Pigment Company, expanding the company's industrial and paper pigments business; it also acquired Kimberly-Clark Printing Technology, a special ink manufacturer (Formulabs, currently a subsidiary of Sensient). SynTec, ECS, and Formulabs are Sensient imaging technology divisions that provide inks and specialty dyes and chemicals for display imaging and specialty printing. Sensient imaging technology is one of the three divisions of the Sensient pigments group associated with industrial pigments. The others include Sensient paper pigments (paper dyes and stains) and Sensient industrial pigments (for plastics, leather and antifreeze).

The ink business is Sen-sient's main growth area, and the company’s goal is to increase its sales of craft pigments to US$140 million in 2003.

Ciba's refinement is also in the inkjet printing market. Recently, the company's new water-soluble dye production line for ink-jet printing has a longer image durability under open air conditions and is suitable for large-format advertising posters. Ciba plans to expand its highly functional Diketo-Pyrrolo-Pyrrole pigment production in Monthey, Switzerland, for automotive coatings, inks, plastics and electronics. The new production capacity will be put into production in 2004.

Avecia is a manufacturer of inkjet printing inks for office and home use, and inkjet products for printed circuit board (PCBs). March. Avecia introduced the Jetrack technology for the production of commercial quantities of polymer solutions that form an etching inhibitor and solder mask on PCBs by ink jet printing. Avecia and Italy New
System has formed an alliance and recently began selling circuit board inkjet printing equipment. Avecia estimates that the material market for etching inhibitors and solder masks used in PCBs amounts to 500 million U.S. dollars, and most of them relate to inkjet printing technology. Avecia hopes to occupy a major share in this emerging market. In 2002, sales of Avecia's electronic materials business decreased by 5% to 64 million pounds ($102 million).

New product technology

Photocuring, ultraviolet (UV) curing, and radiation (EB) curing greatly accelerate production efficiency compared to conventional thermal curing. When UV is used in a high pigment system, the curing ability is limited, but EB does not. With the cost of EB curing equipment going down by 2/3, it began to have competitive strength.

Inx International Ink Company Introduces Several New Products In April, Including LithoCure, a New Vegetable Oil-based Product for Hybrid Printers; InxCure, a Photocurable Ink
UVXcel; InxCure UV WebXcel for UV network printers; InxCure UVXcel for light-cured offset color systems.

Ciba showed its image art using sensitizers and other products at the European Coatings Exhibition in Nuremberg in April. With the success of UV technology, it has become increasingly common to apply UV radiation curing inks and varnishes to the graphic arts. Other Ciba products include Ciba
Irga-cure 369, used in combination with other sensitizers, is resistant to oxidation, especially in UV ink-jet printing. This product is also available with Irgacure 184, Irgacure
2959 and other alpha-hydroxy-ketone sensitizers are used in lithography, flexo ink printing, and screen printing. In addition, Ciba is developing high-performance CGI
113, high solubility in UV inks, will be used for UV ink packaging industry.

Source: China Ink Network