After a relatively stable period for key raw material ingredients, the past year or so has seen rising prices and pressure on availability on materials. This, in turn, has led major ink manufacturers to announce their own price increases.
     
In the past three months, Sun Chemical, Flint Group, Siegwerk and ACTEGA have announced significant price increases for inks. In addition, BASF and Sun Chemical have announced higher prices on pigments, and BASF has raised prices on UV resins. 

On the ink side, the industry has seen the following increases:
• Sun Chemical cited higher carbon black, oil, and pigment costs as it announced price increases on offset inks, coatings and consumables beginning Feb. 15, 2018 across North America.
 
• Sun Chemical increased flexible packaging products pricing by high single digits, driven by higher raw material costs. The company pointed to production and environmental restrictions on key materials, particularly in China, as well as TiO2.
 
• Flint Group’s CPS Inks division (Commercial, Publication & Sheetfed Inks) announced that it will implement a global price increase of up to 9% on offset and publication gravure inks, coatings and pressroom consumables effective March 1, 2018. The company noted that higher raw material and regulatory costs have led to this increase.
 
“Combined, these factors have affected material availability and cost,” noted Bill Miller, COO of Flint Group CPS Inks.

On the supply side, both BASF and Sun Chemical announced pigment price increases. Sun Chemical Performance Pigments increased prices worldwide on azo pigments at the beginning of the year, mainly due to higher azo intermediate costs.
 
“The cost of azo intermediates and other key raw materials have increased significantly and continue to do so, impacting the pigment industry,” said Chris Weighill, VP and global classical pigment product manager, Sun Chemical Performance Pigments. “The expectation is that there will be no short-term relief in sight for these rising costs, forcing us to increase our prices.”
 
At the end of January 2018, BASF moved to increase prices for pigments, dyes and preparations by up to 15% percent globally, citing price increases on precursors of pigments and dyes, as well as higher regulatory costs.
 
Two weeks ago, BASF announced plans to increase prices by 3% to 10% for its Laromer UV resins in EMEA. This was driven by prices for raw materials as well as REACH registration costs.

As these companies noted in their announcements, this is likely to be a continuing challenge for everyone in the ink supply chain, and we will likely to see more of this in the near future, whether it is announced or not.