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Siegwerk reacts to rising cost of raw materials for publication gravure and web offset inks
Siegwerk reacts to rising cost of raw materials for publication gravure and web offset inks
Siegwerk has been forced to react to the sharp rise worldwide in the cost of raw materials for publication gravure and web offset inks. “The Siegwerk Group will of course be taking every measure possible to fence off increases in raw material costs or to compensate them by increasing efficiency,” commented Ansgar Nonn, Head of Siegwerk’s Publication segments and a member of the company’s board. “Nevertheless, we will have no option but to pass on part of the cost increase to the market. We are currently engaged in determining the level of the price adjustments required. We will shortly be contacting our customers individually on the issue.”
Over the past few months, the purchasing prices of essential raw materials for printing inks in almost all print processes have risen dramatically. This affects pigments and solvents, but the raw materials for the production of binders have been especially hard hit. Colophony resins, for example, can hardly be procured at all – and, if they can, then only at vastly inflated prices.
A number of different factors have contributed to the increase in costs. On the one hand, numerous manufacturers of chemicals for the production of printing inks have been forced to react to the economic crisis and to subdued business prospects by either severely curtailing their production capacities or ceasing production altogether. And in China, where many essential raw materials are now produced, a drastic tightening up of environmental protection regulations has led to some production closures as well as to substantial increases in costs. In addition, the renewed sturdy expansion of Asia’s own national economies has absorbed large quantities of the diminished capacities. A major driving factor governing the raw material prices is the considerable build-up of stocks that is taking place throughout the entire supply chain in anticipation of further price increases to come.