According to Smithers Pira's report (global packaging outlook 2018), the global packaging market is worth more than $950 billion. Among them, Asia is the largest consumer area, accounting for 36% of the market, and the market is expanding; followed by North America and Western Europe, with 23% and 22% respectively. In recent years, the market share of flexible packaging has rebounded significantly.
Packaging ink industry is also on the rise. It is estimated that the sales volume of packaging ink in North America is about 2 billion US dollars, and the annual sales of Flexo Ink alone is more than 1 billion US dollars. Sheet fed offset ink and packaging gravure ink which can be used for folding cartons also have a considerable proportion in the ink market. Although inkjet printing is still in the early stage of development cycle, digital printing ink still attracts some market share of packaging ink market. Worldwide, gravure ink occupies a more significant share in the packaging market in Asia and Europe.
Three international groups interpret packaging ink Market
According to flint, the packaging ink market has been improved "in step" with flexible packaging, paper and paperboard packaging and labeling. Flexible packaging is becoming more common for a number of reasons, including light weight, excellent aesthetic performance and additional functionality, they said. On the other hand, for most people, the use of paper and cardboard packaging for beverages and aseptic products is more novel and convenient than ever. In the past few years, most ink manufacturers have acknowledged that there is no doubt that this is a market for quality service and price. Customers are always looking for value drivers, such as continuous innovation, true process expertise, compliance guidance, and the ability to drive strategic change.
For Huber group, according to their own situation, they will target the ink market into two parts: offset and liquid. In both areas, the growth in demand for special effects inks is designed to meet the demand for quality packaging due to the increasing complexity of print design and appearance. On the other hand, they noticed the pricing pressure of various standard packaging inks. For offset printing packaging, a part of the traditional ink business is slowly but continuously transferred to UV ink, and this situation is becoming more and more obvious.

Through the specific observation of the liquid ink industry, Huber group has seen some trends: reducing the number of ink product series used by users, or using concentrate for internal production to simplify the management of ink product supply chain; increasing the definition of all printing processes; taking enhanced consistency as a prerequisite for improving the standardization of production process; and quality control In particular, the adoption of more specific environmental restrictions on packaging (e.g. the adoption of more detailed environmental restrictions on packaging in Europe) and the adoption of more specific environmental restrictions on packaging in Europe.

"For liquid inks, growth in different market segments is closely related to geographical regions," Huber added. For example, in Europe, flexo ink growth faster than gravure ink, and in Asia, gravure ink growth is significantly faster than flexo ink
Toyo ink company believes that the packaging market as an example can illustrate the convenience of modern society. These changes require packaging ink to meet some physical requirements in technology. As a large number of enterprises become more and more global through integration and acquisition, printing enterprises and corresponding customer requirements are also beginning to converge. It can be seen that solvent based and UV ink will become the fastest growing packaging ink segment market.
The impact of current packaging trends on the ink market, Flint Group claims that the fastest growing segment of the packaging market is the label market, especially the retractable label. Small package ink and composite ink segment market development is good. Beverage, aseptic products and specialty paper segments grew faster than the traditional folding carton and corrugated paper segments. The use of low energy and led ink for narrow offset and sheet fed offset has increased dramatically.
For this kind of food packaging which needs to be touched by hand, the low mobility of ink is particularly important.
Flynt added that composite inks were the most significant growth area because it was clear that some emerging markets needed to provide longer shelf life for food in packaging, especially those with special environmental conditions.
In addition, Flint Group also proposes that macro trends in the ink market include increasing demand for clear sustainability and recyclability, improving the effect of aesthetic and economic characteristics, improving functionality for consumers, and innovating in efficiency, speed and compliance.
Toyo ink said that the main development trend of packaging includes solvent based ink for flexible film, and its main advantage lies in the quality and speed comparison with water-based ink. In addition, small package printing is another development trend. According to their experience, the global growth regions are Brazil, India and China.
Sunchem North America Ink Co., Ltd. has found that the global regulatory focus is increasing with the promotion of "FDA compliance policy guidelines" adopted by Nestle and Swiss regulations.
According to sunchem, there is growing interest in water-based inks for specific product lines, especially for high-quality printing of pre printed corrugated boards. The biggest concern of water-based system is to reduce the emission of harmful substances. Sunchem also found a renewed interest in water-based inks for high-performance composite inks and outdoor applications. As printers continue to move towards faster printing speeds, sunchem also found that there is still a strong interest in solvent based inks, which can provide quality printing results by improving speed and efficiency. In addition, in order to obtain high-quality and differentiated packaging, the pursuit of special inks (metallic and discolored inks) and the use of high-definition flat technology are also increasing.
In addition, sunchem also found an increasing interest in UV / energy curing products for packaging and other applications, especially for EC products with resistance performance as a key standard. At the same time, the combination of EC flexographic printing ink and energy curing composite ink products is also growing.
INX international ink company claimed that the company's business remained stable, in which the business development of water-based and solvent based inks remained consistent. "If people choose water-based ink, they will stick to the product, and the same philosophy applies to solvent based ink users," they said. In addition, most of our customers will continue to use energy curing products, which they would not have done in the past. "
Low mobility is the most popular topic in the packaging industry. In view of the current concern about the safety of food packaging, it is not surprising that the low mobility packaging market is ready to develop. According to Wikoff color Corporation, this is "the hottest topic in the packaging and printing industry.".
They said that although there has been no recent change in relevant laws in the United States and Europe, customer demand is driving the issue more deeply and quickly than any regulatory agency.
INX company believes that low mobility ink penetration is improving, especially in the UV / EB part. Mobility is still an industry hot spot. They said that in the traditional ink part, there have been some concerns and inquiries about the mobility, but generally speaking, the traditional raw materials have been accepted for many years, so they are relatively safe. Of course, these materials seem to be constantly changing in the future.
According to Huber group, the company has noticed a significant increase in the demand for low mobility offset inks over the past decade and believes that "its significant impetus lies in public discussions, including mineral oil composition (mosh / moah) or photoinitiators for UV curing systems".
Especially in Central Europe, most food packaging is now printed with low mobility offset ink. Since the 1970s, liquid inks used in Europe have this characteristic for a long time. The rest of the world seems to be gradually adopting the European approach.
When many enterprises focus on low mobility ink, sunchem said that many customers are now focusing all their attention on low mobility packaging. This means that all materials in the structure and process used in packaging promote low mobility packaging. Sunchem will continue to work with customers to launch ink products to help meet the needs of low mobility packaging.
They said that in order to meet the requirements of the market, many European packaging enterprises are particularly interested in our various low migration solutions. We've also seen an increase in interest in North and South America, but it's slower in these regions than in Europe. In addition, in 2014 and 2015, the Flint Group has seen a "rapid increase" in the mobility testing services it provides to its customers.
The cost of raw materials has stabilized and the price is higher than the level of previous years. Generally, the sharp fluctuation of raw material cost has always been the main concern of suppliers. However, in today's relatively stable economic situation, ink suppliers are in a more difficult period, during which the cost has been adjusted to an "average" level. For these global ink manufacturing enterprises, raw materials and overall price adjustment to the "new normal", has been a new challenge.
INX said that although raw material prices began to stabilize in the first two years, they remained higher than in previous years.
Wikoff said the increase in crude oil production has slowed down the prices of certain raw materials, and the law on supply and demand has reiterated the impact of producers on the industry. Although the consumption of ink, coating and raw materials is always huge, its cost still depends on the availability.
The Flint Group said that when it comes to unforeseen increases in raw material prices, sometimes taking the initiative is the best defense. They found that significant fluctuations in crude oil prices would not affect the packaging segment to a large extent, and all moves may or may not be offset by currency exchange, depending on the source of the raw materials.
In the packaging value chain, the integration of TiO2 manufacturing industry should be the focus of the practitioners who use white pigments. "Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the volatility of the supply side market in our industry," flint added. There are many factors in this situation. For example, the prosperity of the mining industry does increase the cost of TiO2 significantly; however, the TiO2 industry itself can not always bear the increase in its own costs, leading to large-scale integration, which makes the supply market more tense. There are significant fluctuations in the solvent market, some of which are intuitive compared with the underlying drivers such as crude oil. Increasingly stringent regulations have had an impact on pigments, and some initiatives (such as reach) and other regulations have been the driving force behind the industry's major costs.
Market demand has become more volatile than ever before. The BRICs used to be the most critical growth area, but suddenly they are the hardest part to deal with. More importantly, as a global company, currency volatility is having a significant impact on costs.
According to sunchem, different products in the raw material market have different situations. On the one hand, some resins, intermediates and solvents are experiencing substantial inflation; on the other hand, many other key raw materials are relatively stable. Recently, the price of raw materials has remained much higher than that of three years ago.
Sunchem claims to have found significant cost pressures on a variety of raw materials they have been focusing on. Rosin resin is one of them, which is due to the Chinese market in order to obtain higher value through rosin resin. We have also seen a sharp rise in the price of azo pigment intermediates due to operational problems and pressure from environmental compliance in China. Due to tight supply in the European market, the cost of ethyl acetate has also increased significantly this year.
"There is no doubt that there will be some unexpected pressure due to the supply problems we are not aware of at the moment. However, the supply of key raw materials is generally good, the global economy is still growing at a moderate pace, and new oil production will help to keep oil and raw material costs in line. " Solar chemistry added.
For ink manufacturers, the impact of higher raw material costs and lower sales prices is becoming a serious problem for ink manufacturers, the group said. The cost, availability and consistency of raw materials do have an important impact on the development of existing ink technology and all ink systems worldwide.
Another important driver, according to the Huber group, is the compliance of various relevant regulations in the chemical industry (reach in Europe, similar health and safety regulations in other countries, and a list of chemicals). However, it is expensive to make the raw materials meet the requirements (e.g. through reach). In addition, the identification and selection of advanced raw materials for food packaging inks will also generate costs. The existing ink price does not include all of the above additional costs, and in recent years, the characteristics of the financial tightening, various internal processes began to simplify. So as they make the judgment, the situation will spread throughout the ink manufacturing industry.
Dongguan Beite packaging materials Co., Ltd. - located in Dongguan City, the world's manufacturing city, is a subsidiary of Beite packaging (China) Co., Ltd., with a plant area of 6000 square meters. It is a flexible packaging enterprise integrating R & D, production and sales. It has a complete set of domestic advanced production equipment, a scientific and humanized management system and a group of experienced technical personnel For backing, to provide customers with quality products and first-class service.
The company produces composite bags, roll film, fruit bags, aluminum foil bags, suction mouth bags, self-supporting bags, zipper bags, anti-static bags, special-shaped bags, etc., which are suitable for the internal and external packaging of food, daily chemicals, electronics, toys, medicine, cosmetics, industrial products and other industries.
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