Ink Market Review and Development

The status of the ink industry in 2005

(1) The increase in prices of raw materials and the increase in costs in all aspects have led to a decline in the profits of ink companies.

The price of crude oil in 2005 has been hovering at the highest level in history, once close to 70 US dollars / barrel. The rise in crude oil directly led to the rise of ink raw materials. Although the price of organic solvents did not reach the peak in the second half of 2004, in 2005, the price of ink per ton of raw materials rose by 1,000 to 3,000 yuan from the 2004 average. For solvent-based inks, the price of organic solvents directly controls the profits of ink companies, solvent prices, corporate profits have dropped sharply, or even no profit or loss.

The continuous increase in the price of raw materials is the biggest problem ink companies have encountered in 2005. Although some companies propose to increase the sales price of products, due to the fierce competition in the ink market, the pressure for cost increase cannot be transferred to packaging and printing companies. Can raise the price requirement for some small and medium-sized packaging and printing companies.

(2) Benzene-free inks have been developed.

In April 2005, at the ink conference held in Hangzhou, many experts proposed to improve the environmental protection and sanitation of inks. It is recommended that the control indicators for heavy metals be enhanced in the ink industry standards. In July 2005, the odor problem of the plastic flexible packaging of potato chips in a certain company in Lanzhou once again raised people's concern about environmental protection inks.

For offset inks, the use of high-boiling solvents containing a certain amount of benzene substances, plus its own heavy metals, resulting in newspapers and books produced odor, endangering people's health. The plastic flexible packaging industry has demanded that the benzene residue containing benzene ink be controlled below 3mg/m2, which imposes stringent requirements on solvent ink manufacturers and at the same time greatly promotes the development of benzene-free inks.

Although benzene-free inks currently do not have advantages in terms of quality and price compared with benzene-containing inks, they still achieved great progress in 2005. Many companies with strong technical strength have increased the market for benzene-free inks. Promotion, it can be predicted that in the next 2 to 3 years, this market will gradually grow.

(3) The scale and strength have been improved, and market competition has turned to technological strength.

Relative to 2004, the scale and strength of ink companies in 2005 have been greatly improved. According to the statistics of the national ink industry, the output growth of several major ink production enterprises in 2005 significantly exceeded the national average, indicating that China’s ink industry is in the process of In the direction of scale. At the same time as the price of raw materials, ink companies have begun to focus on investment in technology research and development, have set up professional ink research institutes or R & D department, engaged in the development of new products, lay a solid foundation for technological upgrading.

In terms of hardware investment, some large and medium-sized ink companies have established new factories to improve the production environment of inks. Guangdong, Zhejiang, Tianjin, and Shanghai are still the main ink production bases in China, and some ink companies have developed rapidly, such as the Shanxi Eagle Company, Shanxi Elite Company, and Anhui Xinli Inks. In October 2004, the new plant designed by Xinli Ink was designed in accordance with the scale of 8,000 tons of plastic ink. In the past year, the production environment of ink products has been significantly improved, and production costs have also been reduced accordingly. Zhejiang Yongshang Chemicals Co., Ltd. has planned to invest 120 million yuan in the Pujiang Economic Development Zone and 200 acres of land will be built into “Yongzhi Resin Ink Industrial Park”. By then, it will reach an annual output of 20,000 tons of ink resin and 20,000 tons of printing ink. .

According to statistics, the output of enterprises above designated size (statistics of the top 30 companies) from January to November 2005 has reached 200,000 tons, plus the output of other companies, the national ink output has exceeded 300,000 from January to November in 2005. Ton, which has increased by about 15% compared to 2004, still maintains rapid growth.

The Characteristics of the Ink Market in 2006

The ink market in 2006 will exhibit the following features.

(1) Green ink has room for development.

In 2006, the new ink national standards will be introduced soon, which will rigorously stipulate and control benzene solvent residues and heavy metal content. The introduction of such standards will allow the development of environmental protection inks. At the same time, due to the universal recognition of environmental protection inks, such inks will develop rapidly. In particular, benzene-free plastic inks will be used in large-scale applications in 2006. From this perspective, in 2006, China's ink will move into the fast lane of rational development.

At present, the application of water-based inks in cartons and certain papers has matured, but the printing of plastic films and coated papers is still affected by factors such as drying speed. It is still in the initial stage of development and it is still difficult to replace solvent-based inks in the short term.

(2) There is no major change in the price of ink, subject to fluctuations in the price of crude oil.

Because the price of ink only accounts for 5% to 15% of the printing cost, in the face of domestic relatively mature ink market, the ability of ink companies to adjust their prices is quite limited. Of course, the price of ink is greatly affected by the price of crude oil. If there is a sudden increase in the price of crude oil, it is inevitable that ink companies will adjust prices by a certain margin.

(3) Market competition is more intense, technology research and development and equipment investment increase.

The competition in the ink market will basically shift to product R&D and technical strength competition, which will be more cruel than pure price wars. Such special inks as mirror inks and fluorescent inks will continue to emerge. This differentiated product has become one of the important sources of profits for companies.

The ink industry will increase investment in 2006. At the China Coatings Exhibition in 2005, some foreign advanced ink manufacturing equipment or domestic ink manufacturing equipment that imitated foreign advanced technology became a hot spot for Chinese ink industry. With the use of such equipment, the production cycle of ink will be shortened.
Ink quality has been further improved.

Finally, in terms of output, in 2006, it will achieve a growth of more than 13% on the basis of 2005 and is expected to reach 380,000 tons.

As China's packaging and printing industry is in a period of rapid development, this will lead China's ink industry to continue its rapid development. According to the basic situation of the national ink industry in 2005, in 2006, the output of large companies in ink companies will grow faster, and will be competitive in the international market. With regard to strength, medium-sized ink companies will upgrade their expertise and achieve technological breakthroughs.

Source of information: pack.cn