Printers Should Expect Ink Price Increases

  • 2011-07-19
Printing companies in Canada and around the world may notice that the cost of ink rose on their July 1st invoices. Sun Chemical - with Canadian subsidiary Sun Chemical Canada headquartered in the Brampton area (close to Mississauga) - has implemented a fuel surcharge to its clients. The fuel surcharge has been introduced by Sun Chemical, the world’s largest printing inks supplier, to help offset increases in freight costs and diesel fuel prices. The new surcharge will increase by one cent per kilo for every five cent increase of diesel fuel.

This means that ink prices are expected to increase anywhere from 4 to 14%, depending on the type of ink purchased. Some types of solvent-based inks can rise as much as 14%, meaning that printing companies purchasing inks will find their budget stretched a bit more in the coming months. Increases in raw material prices for ink production, especially the prices of nitrocellulose, acrylic and polyamide resins, TiO2, and Violet 23 pigments have also risen considerably. Sun Chemical also points to the unstable global supply chain which has helped contribute to the significant increase in ink prices.

The rising cost of implementing Print technologies and printing supplies- and now inks, combined with cutthroat competition among printing companies themselves have forced some printers who have been unable to compete out of the competitive business.

Sun Chemical and its supply chain partners are looking together closely at ways to control costs and prevent a further rapid inflation of ink costs. Sun Chemical hopes that the surcharge will only be temporary.
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