The hottest offset ink market is fighting against

Offset printing ink market struggles with harsh economic conditions

due to the impact of economic development, the development speed of offset printing ink market continues to decline, but there is still reason to remain optimistic in 2003

the offset printing ink market has been struggling with the harsh economic situation, but despite this, the situation will improve in 2003

offset printing ink market has been facing a serious downturn. The 2002 state of the industry report released by the National Association of printing ink manufacturers (NAPIM) pointed out that the sales of publishing and commercial printing departments fell by 7.5% in 2002. In terms of sales volume, the sales volume of thermosetting inks decreased by 13.2% compared with the previous year, while the sales volume of non thermosetting inks for lithography decreased by 11.5% compared with 2001. Nevertheless, various signs still show some progress in the second half of 2002

although the thermosetting and sheet fed markets have shown little or no growth, Mr. Tom basore, managing director of the web offset Association, still believes that the recovery trend of the thermosetting ink market in 2003 is still very optimistic

thermosetting inks, in particular, have faced new challenges

"generally speaking, affected by the weak domestic economic situation, the American thermosetting ink market was still weak for most of 2002." Mr. Dave mistretta, marketing manager of thermosetting Products Department of Sun Chemical ink, said, "The current economic situation and political uncertainty continue to have a negative impact on some sectors. The decline in the volume of advertisements on magazine pages continues to have a negative impact on the publishing industry, although the overall advertising revenue remains stable. Even in the current uncertain economic period, the retail market sector has shown a sustained rebound."

according to Mr. Les Watkins, general manager of the sheet fed Products Department of Sun Chemical ink company, the development of the sheet fed market in 2002 was not promising. "The industry report shows that the business printing sector is declining, mainly due to the reduction of printing volume driven by trade," Mr. Watkins said. "The trademark and folding carton sectors have maintained their market share, and we now hope that these sectors can maintain the same speed of development as the economic development."

"the thermosetting and sheet fed ink market is still affected by the slow economic development," said Mr. George polasik, senior vice president of offset printing ink Department of INX international ink company, "In 2001, we saw some progress in some sectors, but not all sectors. The area least affected by the slow economic situation may be the packaging market. No matter how people still need to eat, due to the strong competition in the market, the packaging market still needs to use eye-catching packaging products."

in the current configuration, there is no big use for him. The economic development slows down the display of experimental data and results. One department that still maintains growth in the slow period of the developed experimental machine products is the radiation curing market. "Flint's UV and EB product markets are growing," said Diane Parisi, technical director of Flint's adhesive ink department

New Technology

with the continuous growth of the energy curing ink sector, people continue to develop new UV and EB ink technologies suitable for the offset printing market. According to Dr. John Rooney, vice president of technology of Sun Chemical ink company, "Sun Chemical Ink Co., Ltd. took the lead in developing lithographic printing ink used in conjunction with ordinary water, replacing the original solution that needed to be equipped with solvent. This product was developed on the basis of the company's patented product in 1994 and attracted the attention of many sheet fed printing enterprises. Our hybrid energy curing sheet fed printing ink hy bryte Max has achieved considerable results in the past two years. In addition, we have developed A series of non horizontal printing ink products, including quick drying sheet fed ink, washable anhydrous ink, and the recently developed washable energy curing anhydrous ink. "

Sun Chemical ink company has also developed a series of new technologies to improve the productivity of the printing workshop. "Aiming at the goal of reducing the 'overall printing cost' of printing enterprises, Sun Chemical ink company will also continue to develop high-speed printing machine technology to improve the productivity and production efficiency of printing plants." Mr. mistretta said, "the latest generation of products are specially designed to reduce the costs in the manufacturing process, and move towards improving the bottom line of enterprise profits to ensure that enterprises are more competitive in their respective markets."

inx international ink company has also developed a new product to improve efficiency. "We have introduced a sheet fed ink with the fastest setting, which is launched together with the new Ecopure production line." Mr. polasik said, "we are still making continuous efforts to improve our existing products and maintain our unique advantages with competitive enterprises. We also plan to launch other new products to the market in 2003."

"we will also launch the next for the sheet fed market in a despicable competition environment." Xu Jizheng, general manager of Yucheng bell new materials Co., Ltd., introduced the generation of Colortrac series products, "said James ramaker, vice president of sales and marketing of the rotary offset printing department of INX international ink company

although new inks such as single fluid inks and anhydrous inks are still the focus of interest, Mr. Watkins believes that the sheet fed market is still dominant in the market, and people need stable inks that meet high performance standards, which can provide a wide range of operation and use for printing workshop operators

(to be continued)