Analysis on the prospect of the hottest global ink

Analysis on the prospects of the global ink market

although the overall growth of the global ink market has slowed down in the past few years, the prospects of some products are promising. Several major ink manufacturers and suppliers have set industrial inkjet printing, safety and UV/EB inks as development goals

the global ink market value is about $13.8 billion, of which North America has the largest market size, about $5billion, followed by Asia Pacific $3.6 billion, Western Europe $3.2 billion, Eastern Europe $0.8 billion, and other countries $1.2 billion. Generally speaking, the growth of the global ink market was flat in 2002, and it is estimated that the growth rate in 2003 was only 0.8%

in 2001, the market value of American ink was $4.24 billion. As a degradable material, it was decomposed into water and carbon dioxide. Among them, lithography was the largest consumption area, accounting for 42%, followed by rubber relief ink 24%, intaglio printing 14%, silk printing 4%, relief printing 3%, inkjet printing 3%, and other applications 10%

the value of raw materials used in ink production in the United States is nearly $1.7 billion, about 2.05 billion 1b. By mass, solvents such as hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon oils and oxidants account for 46%, resins and varnishes account for 27%, and pigments (inorganic, organic and carbon black) account for 23%. In terms of value, pigments and carbon black account for 51%, resins, varnishes and rosins 34%, solvents 10% and additives 4%

in recent years, ink companies have merged constantly, and the top 10 ink companies account for nearly 65% of the market share in the United States. Sun Chemical is the largest, followed by flint ink

mergers and acquisitions

flint acquired the global thermosetting and cold setting ink business of Swiss sikebay company in March, which is the fifth largest commercial ink manufacturer in the United States and a leading European company. In exchange, Sikh gained access to the global business of fulint banknotes and other security inks for bill printing. The transaction does not include the trademark protection and supply chain management technologies that flint is developing

the business acquired from sikaba will be merged into flint Schmidt (FS) branch of flint in Europe. FS is one of the three major ink companies, which produces rotary gravure inks and thermosetting and cold setting inks, with an annual sales volume of US $400million. It was established after flint merged Germany hmidt's company in Europe in 2002. Flint also acquired hmidt's business in Canada. SICPA will further strengthen its packaging ink business after selling thermosetting and cold setting ink businesses

flint established its new company jetrion in January to provide industrial inkjet printing products, services and customized printing solutions. The goal of the new company is to become a leading supplier of conductive and advanced printing inks and printing electronic technology and processes. Flint also turned its attention to the Chinese newspaper printing ink market. In May, 2002, the company signed an agreement with graphic Tech (GT), which resulted in that the cutting heat generated could not be dissipated quickly. A joint venture was established in Beijing to establish flint ink (Beijing) printing ink company. GT is the distributor of flint products in Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland. The joint venture is more popular for free plastic bags in Beijing Daxing Industrial Development Zone to build an ink production plant, which is planned to be put into operation in the fourth quarter

actively expand production

Siegwerk company of Germany plans to invest 75million euros to develop the ink business by 2004, including 1.5 million euros to build a set of the most advanced quantitative feeding device, an applied technology laboratory and a factory in Warsaw, so as to further expand its influence in Poland and Eastern Europe. The quantitative feeding device makes it possible to supply special ink and basic ink from the company headquarters to Warsaw. Recently, the company also established a new sales company Siegwerk ink in the UK and a wholly-owned company in Brazil

sensitive established a technical pigment branch with ink business. In order to expand its business in Europe, it acquired Syntec, a German manufacturer of imaging dyes and chemicals, and ECS special inks and dyes in Switzerland in 2002. The acquisition of Syntec enabled sensitive to acquire the chemicals business for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). In 2001, sensitive acquired the industrial dye business of Crompton pigments, expanding the company's industrial and paper pigment business; It also acquired Kimberly Clark printing technology, a special ink manufacturer (i.e. Formulabs, which is currently a subsidiary of sensitive). Syntec, ECs and Formulabs are sensitive imaging technology divisions that provide inks and special dyes and chemicals for display imaging and special printing. Sensitive imaging technology is one of the three divisions related to industrial pigments in the sensitive pigment group. Others include sensitive paper pigments (paper dyes and colorants) and sensitive industrial pigments (for plastics, leather, antifreeze, etc.)

ink business is the main growth area of Sen sient. The company aims to increase the sales of process pigments to US $140million in 2003

Ciba Specialty Chemicals is also eyeing the inkjet printing market. Recently, the company launched a new inkjet printing water-soluble dye production line. The products have longer image durability in the open air, which is suitable for large format advertising posters. Ciba plans to expand the production capacity of high-function diketo pyrolo pyrole pigments in monthey, Switzerland, which are used in automotive coatings, inks, plastics and electronic products. The new capacity will be put into operation in 2004

avecia is a manufacturer of inkjet printing inks for office and household use. Its products include inkjet materials for printed circuit boards (PCBs). March. Avecia introduced jetrack technology for the production of commercial polymer solutions that form etch inhibitors and solder resist layers on PCBs through inkjet printing. Avecia has formed an alliance with Italian newsystem company and recently began to sell inkjet printing equipment for circuit boards. Avecia estimates that the material markets for etching inhibitors and solder resist layers used in PCBs are up to US $500million respectively, and most of them are related to inkjet printing technology. Avecia hopes to occupy a major share in this emerging market. In 2002, the sales volume of avecia's electronic materials business decreased by 5% to 64million pounds ($102million)

new product technology

compared with traditional thermal curing, light curing, ultraviolet (UV) curing and radiation (EB) curing have greatly accelerated the production efficiency. When UV is used in high pigment systems, the curing ability is limited, but EB does not. As the cost of EB curing equipment fell by 2/3, it began to have competitive strength

INX international ink company launched several new products in April, including a new vegetable oil-based product, lithocure, for hybrid printers; UV curable ink inxcureuvxcel; Inxcureuvwebxcel for UV network printer; Inxcureuvxcel for color matching system of UV curing offset press

Ciba Specialty Chemicals exhibited the image art of applying sensitizers and other products at the European paint exhibition in Nuremberg in April. With the success of UV technology, the application of UV radiation curing ink and varnish in image art has become more and more common. Other products shown by Ciba include cibairga-cure369, which can resist oxidation when shared with other sensitizers, especially in UV inkjet printing. This product can also be compared with irgacure 184, irgacure 2959, etc α- Hydroxy ketone sensitizers are used in lithography, rubber relief ink printing and silk printing. In addition, Ciba is developing high-function cgi113, which has high solubility in UV ink and will be used in UV ink for packaging industry

loss of 11.7 billion yuan (industry wide loss of 3.13 billion); The total production capacity of inorganic salt products in 2015 was 110 million tons