The development of the European ink market will start to improve

This year, the demand for European print has slowly increased, and there are many signs that the situation in the European ink market will start to improve.

BASF is Europe's largest manufacturer of inks and pigments. The biggest factor hindering the healthy development of the European economy is the appreciation of currencies, including 12 European countries including Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The currency level has increased by 10% over last year, Years ago increased by nearly 20%. The continuous decline of the U.S. dollar has impacted manufacturers’ exports to the United States and Latin America and other countries and regions. Domestic pigment manufacturers also face fierce competition from imported pigments in Asia.

At present, there are many uncertainties that affect the printing industry. A recent survey by the Printing Industry Federation of the United Kingdom showed that their business scope has improved for the first time since January 2000, and the number of orders has increased, but the Federation is not willing to make any predictions about this. Just the sign of recovery, the key lies in whether this phenomenon can continue. In view of the fact that printing companies are striving to increase sales prices and limit the current situation of increasing ink prices, ink producers can only strengthen management while reducing costs and achieving high-efficiency production.

Sun Chemicals has 16 sites in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They have begun to increase production efficiency and closed a packaging and intaglio ink factory in Waterford near London last year. Flint also made reasonable adjustments to its European subsidiary Flint-Schmidt. According to the Sikhbai Group, last year they stopped production of safety inks obtained from Flint and acquired Flint's safe ink business for currency and other liquid securities, while Flint acquired Sikh. Thanks to the global thermoset and coldset ink business.

Compared with the slow economic growth in recent years, the packaging market has rebounded. According to the European Printing and Packaging Association’s forecast, except for the packaging market, the share of digital printing in the printing market will rise from 4% to 5%, and in 2013 it will reach 14%. The growth rate in the packaging sector will be relatively slow. This is digital printing. The development of ink provides an opportunity.

Another issue facing the European printing industry is the new chemicals management system proposed by the EU for chemicals and their downstream products. This system is called the REACH regulation. It includes about 30,000 kinds of chemical products in the EU market, and downstream products such as textiles, light industry, and pharmaceuticals, which are registered, evaluated, and licensed to three management and monitoring systems. The introduction of this regulation has made quite a few manufacturers of low-volume inks and coatings, lowering their higher test costs in the formulation process. To this end, the European Parliament has reduced the testing requirements for some chemical products, so that the impact of REACH regulations on low-yield chemicals has been minimized, but it also caused end-users, such as printers, to worry about this program, so EuPIA It will also play an important role in the exchange of REACH regulations and user groups. EuPIA will work with members of the European Parliament to discuss the specific meaning of REACH regulations. Perhaps 2004 will be a year of continuous growth in the demand for printing inks.