Attributed to the ongoing rising costs of raw materials and volatility in the global supply chain, Sun Chemical and INX International have announced they are raising prices in North America. Sun Chemical announced increases from four to eight percent for select sheetfed colour inks and energy-curable inks. The new pricing for both ink manufacturers will take effect April 1.
Prices are rising four percent for Sun Chemical’s SunLit Diamond, SunLit Intense and SunLit Exact sheetfed process colour inks, and eight percent for all of its other sheetfed process colour inks.
Price increases are seven percent for all Sun Chemical energy curable printing inks for narrow web, tag and label, packaging and commercial sectors.
“Although it is impossible for us to totally change what is happening to the dynamics of our supply chain, at Sun Chemical, we continue to work extremely hard to control our own costs as well as work closely with our supply chain partners to curtail cost, but it has not been enough to offset the drastic raw material price increases we have seen this past year across all our product lines,” said Brian Breidigan, vice president, product management sheetfed, North American Inks, Sun Chemical, in the release announcing the price increases.
“Raw material increases are outpacing our mitigation efforts to a point that we are unable to absorb the impact of the increases anymore,” said INX president and CEO Rick Clendenning in a company release.
One of Sun Chemical’s cost-efficiency solutions for printers who use a lot of spot colour mixes is the company’s Dispenser Program. The solution involves Sun Chemical installing a branded version of the GFI MX12 ink mixing/dispensing unit on a shop floor — the program requires an ink volume commitment from the printing company, but the equipment remains the property of Sun Chemical so it doesn’t need to be purchased outright. This promotional website claims potential annual savings of up 46 percent on the purchasing of blended inks.
Updated March 14, 2011
