A Brief Analysis of the Status of Printing Ink Market in Asian Countries (I)

Sustained economic growth and improved living standards have driven the printing demand in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific region began to show signs of recovery after an economic setback, but rising raw material prices have greatly reduced profit margins.

According to Hisato Tanemura, DIC Asia-Pacific Marketing Director, “The industry has recovered from the market setbacks caused by the Iraq war and SARS in 2003. The overall situation in 2004 was good, but after the Midsummer industry profits were affected by soaring solvent prices. The source is of course rising oil prices. With the soaring prices of raw materials, the appreciation of the euro and the yen has also had an impact on the industry." However, the growth of the ink industry in the region has been good in the past year.

Henry Leong, president of Flint Asia, stated: "In general, except for India, the printing industry in Asia grew by 5%-6% in 2004. The main growth countries are China and Vietnam."

Saoshi INX’s general manager of international operations, Toshiyuki Sawada, said: "The growth of the ink industry in 2004 seems to exceed the GDP growth rate."

Coumara Radja, general manager of Micro Inks International Business and Corporate Media, said: “Since the major countries, India and China are a region as a whole, the growth of the printing industry is better than in Europe and the Americas. Significant growth in India and China’s GDP is for printing and printing inks. Industrial growth has created conditions, and the growth of the printing ink industry has reached almost 7%-9% in these two countries."

Radja believes that India and China have experienced the greatest growth. He said: "Actually, China's GDP grew by 9.25% in the first quarter of this year, and India's sustained growth rate of more than 7% of GDP has also attracted world attention."

Tanemura said: "India's economic growth in 2004 was about 6%, but its printing ink industry achieved double-digit growth rates, with packaging and newspaper printing the strongest growth."

Except for China and India, the growth rate of other countries is also very strong, but Tanemura stressed that China and India rose the most, followed by Thailand and Vietnam.

Leong said: "Last year, Vietnam's GDP growth was about 10%, and foreign investment has increased a lot. These factors have contributed to the rapid development of Vietnam's printing industry."

When it comes to growth, the Japanese market is mixed. Tanemura said: "With the recovery of Japan's economy, the offset printing market in 2004 was mainly due to the small increase in newspaper and bulk printing. The sheetfed market continued to shrink by 2%-3% in 2004, and the liquid ink market was relatively better."

Sawada said: “In Japan, commercial printing has the best performance, metal decorative printing has decreased in the opposite direction, and gravure and flexo packaging have increased. The reduction in metal decorative printing is due to the fact that beverage cans are gradually being replaced by PET bottle gravure printing.”

Radja said that the Australian economy has performed well in the past year. Radja said: "The printing industry has been very stable in 2004, but compared with the trend of the past few years, we have noticed that many printing activities are shifting to more economical overseas markets such as Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. This will give medium-sized printing companies We have also seen mergers and acquisitions and integration between companies, and as a result, large-scale printing companies have gained market share by buying small-scale printing plants, thus consolidating their position. Medium-sized printing plants are always at the forefront of big manufacturers and small factories are low. Under the dual pressure of cost."

Tanemura said: "Last year due to the appreciation of the Australian dollar, the industry lost some of its overseas orders, which caused the printing industry to stagnate in 2004. The sheetfed market suffered the most damage and demand fell by more than 5%."

Radja pointed out that due to intense competition, ink suppliers are under great pressure, especially on sheetfed inks. Radja said: "The sheetfed printing market is dominated by DIC, Toyo, Sikhbaa, and several other market share ink companies such as Hostmann Steinberg Printing Ink, Sakata Ink, Japan T&K Toka, India Micro Ink, Inctec, and Rich. Litto’s monopoly, Sikhby throws the rotation business to Flint, which gives the latter an opportunity to easily acquire several large businesses that were originally Sikhbaek’s.The heat-curing ink for rotation is basically controlled by Toyo Ink, Flint. Specializing in thermosetting and chilling inks, while Gao's specializes in cold-inking inks, monopolization of the ink business poses difficulties for companies seeking to enter the industry.There are many opportunities for sheetfed and revolving markets, but ink suppliers We must meet stringent quality requirements and ensure we have a fair market share to maintain our business.”

Radja said: "Last year saw a change in sales channels, Hostmann Steinberg moved from CPI to Ferag, and Ferag invested heavily in building a foundation network to support the ink business, including hiring a large number of employees who transferred from Toyo. CPI finally found for Hostmann Steinberg. A replacement for the family, although CPI has always cooperated with Hartmann and other Japanese products, it was not very successful. Most sheetfed inks are directly imported by distributors or ink companies themselves."