07.19.23
Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan 103-8233
Tel: +81 3-5203-7838
DIC: www.dic-global.com/en
Sun Chemical: www.sunchemical.com
Sales: DIC: $4.1 billion (¥ 533,000 billion) in graphic arts sales. Total sales: $8.1 billion
(¥855.4 billion)
Major Products: Broad product portfolio with capabilities in web heatset and sheetfed offset; publication and packaging gravure; news ink and publication coldset; flexographic packaging inks; corrugated packaging inks; energy curable inks and coatings; screen inks, inkjet materials, adhesives for packaging, overprint varnishes, specialty coatings, effect inks, security inks and coatings, printing consumables, specialty polymers and pigments for inks, plastics, paints, coatings, and cosmetics.
Key Personnel: Kaoru Ino, president and CEO; Shuuji Furuta, CFO; Yoshinari Akiyama, president, Color & Display Business Group; Yoshiharu Ootoshi, GM, Production Management Unit; Takashi Ikeda, president, Functional Products Business Group; Kiyotaka Kawashima, GM, Technical Management Unit; Myron Petruch, president and CEO, Sun Chemical; Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging and Graphic Business Group.
No. of Employees: 22,743 as of December 2022.
Comments: The world’s largest ink manufacturer, DIC Corporation has more than 170 companies, including Sun Chemical, its North American/EMEA subsidiary. DIC reported $4.1 billion in graphic arts sales in 2021, with total sales of
$8.1 billion.
DIC Corporation made significant strides towards a sustainable future in 2022 with the launch of the company’s long-term management plan, DIC Vision 2030, which was inspired by a revised corporate vision to “improve the human condition by safely delivering color and comfort for sustainable prosperity.” In the first year of DIC Vision 2030, DIC proactively worked toward a business portfolio transformation that promoted sustainability strategies throughout operations, products, and services, effectively contributing to efforts to enhance social utility, including progress towards reaching carbon net zero.
Building upon the strategically successful acquisition of the Colors & Effects pigment business in 2021, DIC continued to leverage mergers and acquisitions as a way to qualitatively enhance operations in the three business segments—Packaging and Graphics, Color and Display, and Functional Products.
The acquisition of Italian adhesive polymer manufacturer, SAPICI, and Chinese coating resin manufacturer, Guangdong TOD, in 2022, established a basic framework through new technology and expanded production capacity.
“The 2022 business environment presented unique challenges, exemplified by the ongoing global pandemic as well as heightened geopolitical instability, increasing the costs of raw materials, logistics and utilities around the world, and necessitated across-the-board price hikes,” said Keisuke Miyake, manager, Corporate Communications Department, DIC Corporation. “The second half of 2022 saw lagging demand for the semiconductors and thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays vital to digital—one of the three key areas in which DIC is uniquely positioned to contribute to society: Green, Digital, and Quality of Life (QOL).”
In 2022, the packaging materials market lagged significantly, especially in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) where typically the nation displays high demand for packaging materials.
“While demand for stay-at-home spend persisted, pandemic-related restrictions on the movement of both people and goods dramatically reduced overall demand for packaging materials,” Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging & Graphic Business Group, and general manager, Printing Material Products Division, DIC Corporation, observed.
“Moreover, as raw material costs soared globally, 2022 produced price gaps that were difficult to pass on through product pricing,” added Sota. “Beginning around the fourth quarter, some raw material prices began to fall due to a drop in crude oil prices; however, some regions experienced rising prices for titanium oxide and other raw materials, further widening price gaps. Ongoing hostilities in Ukraine reduced demand in Europe amid rising utility costs, making it a difficult year.”
Suzana Rupcic, head of global segment management merchant inks, color materials for Sun Chemical, pointed out that acquisitions and consolidation among smaller and major pigments players have been characteristic of the past years.
“Since the worldwide outbreak of COVID, the pigment market has experienced many of the same challenges as other sectors over the past couple of years, including unforeseen demand changes, supply chain interruptions and – since this year - rising inflation,” Rupcic noted.
“After slowly recovering from the pandemic, the pigment market continues to operate under cost pressure, which impacts the entire printing value chain,” Rupcic continued. “Nonetheless, despite the recent challenges, a general stabilization of raw material supply availability can be observed. Like for other industries, the upcoming developments on inflation and recession will determine growth rates in 2023 and onwards. In general, we anticipate that the global pigments market will grow at least at GDP rate.”
“At the beginning of the year, the packaging ink market dealt with a variety of challenges that continued from 2021,” said Felsberg. “From rises in raw material costs to supply chain stoppages and increased freight costs, the industry saw a limited supply and struggled to find carriers to move products. As 2022 wrapped up, the challenges around supply chain issues lessened to a certain degree and we hope to see continued stabilization in the supply chain as we enter 2023.
“The major growth in 2022 was around sustainable packaging, from compostable packaging using third party certified inks to recyclable packaging and the removal of layers of the package,” Felsberg added. “The focus of the growth was around one or more segments of sustainable packaging. Sun Chemical has developed multiple solutions for sustainable packaging with a synergistic technology approach of inks, coatings and adhesives that uniquely allow the package to retain shelf appeal and meet industry sustainability goals.
“Though growth in the packaging ink market was flat to negative due to shortages in print materials, such as films and solvents, market demand was resilient in 2022,” Felsberg concluded.
Sustainability remains a critical area of interest for DIC Corporation and Sun Chemical.
“To deliver sustainable growth in a global economy plagued by multiple complex and interconnected issues, DIC must transform our business structure into a business that will lead to the resolution of social issues from a long-term perspective, such as net zero carbon, from the perspective of both social value and economic value,” Miyake said. “Thus, we are promoting two basic strategies: Value Transformation and New Pillar Creation
.
“In a specific initiative demonstrating Value Transformation, when we acquired the Italian adhesive polymer manufacturer SAPICI in January 2022, we acquired ultra-low monomer (ULM) technology capable of maximizing the reduction of residual monomers feared to have adverse effects on the environment and the human body,” Miyake added. “Through a broad lineup of diverse technologies and products that contribute to both social value and economic value, we will realize growth even amid global economic turmoil.
“In addition, we developed a new solvent-free lamination adhesive system DUALAM and received a prestigious award in the Japanese packaging industry for our work. We hope to expand DUALAM outside of Japan in 2023.”
For Sun Chemical, the accomplishments of many sustainability initiatives and goals have been some of the most important highlights over the past year. Working with industry leaders, Sun Chemical is working to reduce global CO2 emissions by increasing the use of bio-renewable and recyclable materials while promoting the value of these activities throughout the supply chain.
DIC Corporation and Sun Chemical’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, which shows the company’s commitment to sustainability in its products, operations and collaborations.
Sun Chemical also received the 2023 FTA Sustainability Excellence Award for its development of mono-web coatings, which allows for packaging to more easily be recycled and composted. During interpack, Sun Chemical received the WorldStar Global
Packaging Award for the development of a recyclable mono-layer pouch in cooperation with Elif, and also was honored with TLMI’s Calvin Frost Sustainability Leadership Journey Award.
As for capital improvements, Sun Chemical’s Color Materials division opened a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient mixing plant in Cologne, Germany in 2022. The new mixing plant enables Sun Chemical to produce more efficiently and meet the plastics industry’s increasing quality requirements. The facility comprises more than 1,700 square meters of floor space to ensure an increase in production capacity.
“Despite downward economic pressures, at DIC Corporation, we made steady investments in preparation for the post-coronavirus world, including construction of a new factory in western India, and expansion of factories in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Northeastern China,” Sota said.
As for raw materials, the trajectory of price increases from last year and early 2022 have softened a bit in limited areas, albeit not to any acceptable level of recovery. If the current cost trend continues, it could evolve into a more favorable economic environment.
However, the volatile global energy markets will most likely overrule any favorable feed stock trends and keep inflation elevated. Global demand will also dictate how availability and prices are impacted. Price pressure on nitrocellulose, products derived from the crude tall oil value chain, and other bio-renewables will continue into 2023.
“In 2022, raw material trends continued on a downward trajectory due to soaring crude oil prices that have persisted since 2021. However, we recognize that they have peaked for the time being,” Miyake added. “Conversely, with regard to energy costs, due to the protracted crisis in Ukraine, especially in Europe, particularly in Germany, we expect high prices to continue. In other regions such as Japan, combined with the global inflation trend, we expect electricity and gas prices to remain high.”
As for 2023, Miyake reported that in terms of the short-term business environment, DIC expects a recovery in shipments centered on high-value-added products.
“We will continue to work with a strong sense of mission to enhance our value as a company capable of delivering sustainable prosperity,” Miyake concluded. “To that end we have established five priority business areas for promoting business portfolio transformation, maximizing our impacts on market growth and society: Sustainable Energy, Healthcare, Smart Living, Color Science, and Sustainable Packaging. By concentrating management resources in these five areas, we’ll promote the efficiency of our efforts toward Value Transformation and New Pillar Creation.”
Tel: +81 3-5203-7838
DIC: www.dic-global.com/en
Sun Chemical: www.sunchemical.com
Sales: DIC: $4.1 billion (¥ 533,000 billion) in graphic arts sales. Total sales: $8.1 billion
(¥855.4 billion)
Major Products: Broad product portfolio with capabilities in web heatset and sheetfed offset; publication and packaging gravure; news ink and publication coldset; flexographic packaging inks; corrugated packaging inks; energy curable inks and coatings; screen inks, inkjet materials, adhesives for packaging, overprint varnishes, specialty coatings, effect inks, security inks and coatings, printing consumables, specialty polymers and pigments for inks, plastics, paints, coatings, and cosmetics.
Key Personnel: Kaoru Ino, president and CEO; Shuuji Furuta, CFO; Yoshinari Akiyama, president, Color & Display Business Group; Yoshiharu Ootoshi, GM, Production Management Unit; Takashi Ikeda, president, Functional Products Business Group; Kiyotaka Kawashima, GM, Technical Management Unit; Myron Petruch, president and CEO, Sun Chemical; Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging and Graphic Business Group.
No. of Employees: 22,743 as of December 2022.
Comments: The world’s largest ink manufacturer, DIC Corporation has more than 170 companies, including Sun Chemical, its North American/EMEA subsidiary. DIC reported $4.1 billion in graphic arts sales in 2021, with total sales of
$8.1 billion.
DIC Corporation made significant strides towards a sustainable future in 2022 with the launch of the company’s long-term management plan, DIC Vision 2030, which was inspired by a revised corporate vision to “improve the human condition by safely delivering color and comfort for sustainable prosperity.” In the first year of DIC Vision 2030, DIC proactively worked toward a business portfolio transformation that promoted sustainability strategies throughout operations, products, and services, effectively contributing to efforts to enhance social utility, including progress towards reaching carbon net zero.
Building upon the strategically successful acquisition of the Colors & Effects pigment business in 2021, DIC continued to leverage mergers and acquisitions as a way to qualitatively enhance operations in the three business segments—Packaging and Graphics, Color and Display, and Functional Products.
The acquisition of Italian adhesive polymer manufacturer, SAPICI, and Chinese coating resin manufacturer, Guangdong TOD, in 2022, established a basic framework through new technology and expanded production capacity.
“The 2022 business environment presented unique challenges, exemplified by the ongoing global pandemic as well as heightened geopolitical instability, increasing the costs of raw materials, logistics and utilities around the world, and necessitated across-the-board price hikes,” said Keisuke Miyake, manager, Corporate Communications Department, DIC Corporation. “The second half of 2022 saw lagging demand for the semiconductors and thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays vital to digital—one of the three key areas in which DIC is uniquely positioned to contribute to society: Green, Digital, and Quality of Life (QOL).”
In 2022, the packaging materials market lagged significantly, especially in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) where typically the nation displays high demand for packaging materials.
“While demand for stay-at-home spend persisted, pandemic-related restrictions on the movement of both people and goods dramatically reduced overall demand for packaging materials,” Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging & Graphic Business Group, and general manager, Printing Material Products Division, DIC Corporation, observed.
“Moreover, as raw material costs soared globally, 2022 produced price gaps that were difficult to pass on through product pricing,” added Sota. “Beginning around the fourth quarter, some raw material prices began to fall due to a drop in crude oil prices; however, some regions experienced rising prices for titanium oxide and other raw materials, further widening price gaps. Ongoing hostilities in Ukraine reduced demand in Europe amid rising utility costs, making it a difficult year.”
Suzana Rupcic, head of global segment management merchant inks, color materials for Sun Chemical, pointed out that acquisitions and consolidation among smaller and major pigments players have been characteristic of the past years.
“Since the worldwide outbreak of COVID, the pigment market has experienced many of the same challenges as other sectors over the past couple of years, including unforeseen demand changes, supply chain interruptions and – since this year - rising inflation,” Rupcic noted.
“After slowly recovering from the pandemic, the pigment market continues to operate under cost pressure, which impacts the entire printing value chain,” Rupcic continued. “Nonetheless, despite the recent challenges, a general stabilization of raw material supply availability can be observed. Like for other industries, the upcoming developments on inflation and recession will determine growth rates in 2023 and onwards. In general, we anticipate that the global pigments market will grow at least at GDP rate.”
SunChemical
Jim Felsberg, director product management, packaging inks, Packaging & Graphics Division, Sun Chemical, said that 2022 was a year of transition.“At the beginning of the year, the packaging ink market dealt with a variety of challenges that continued from 2021,” said Felsberg. “From rises in raw material costs to supply chain stoppages and increased freight costs, the industry saw a limited supply and struggled to find carriers to move products. As 2022 wrapped up, the challenges around supply chain issues lessened to a certain degree and we hope to see continued stabilization in the supply chain as we enter 2023.
“The major growth in 2022 was around sustainable packaging, from compostable packaging using third party certified inks to recyclable packaging and the removal of layers of the package,” Felsberg added. “The focus of the growth was around one or more segments of sustainable packaging. Sun Chemical has developed multiple solutions for sustainable packaging with a synergistic technology approach of inks, coatings and adhesives that uniquely allow the package to retain shelf appeal and meet industry sustainability goals.
“Though growth in the packaging ink market was flat to negative due to shortages in print materials, such as films and solvents, market demand was resilient in 2022,” Felsberg concluded.
Sustainability remains a critical area of interest for DIC Corporation and Sun Chemical.
“To deliver sustainable growth in a global economy plagued by multiple complex and interconnected issues, DIC must transform our business structure into a business that will lead to the resolution of social issues from a long-term perspective, such as net zero carbon, from the perspective of both social value and economic value,” Miyake said. “Thus, we are promoting two basic strategies: Value Transformation and New Pillar Creation
.
“In a specific initiative demonstrating Value Transformation, when we acquired the Italian adhesive polymer manufacturer SAPICI in January 2022, we acquired ultra-low monomer (ULM) technology capable of maximizing the reduction of residual monomers feared to have adverse effects on the environment and the human body,” Miyake added. “Through a broad lineup of diverse technologies and products that contribute to both social value and economic value, we will realize growth even amid global economic turmoil.
“In addition, we developed a new solvent-free lamination adhesive system DUALAM and received a prestigious award in the Japanese packaging industry for our work. We hope to expand DUALAM outside of Japan in 2023.”
For Sun Chemical, the accomplishments of many sustainability initiatives and goals have been some of the most important highlights over the past year. Working with industry leaders, Sun Chemical is working to reduce global CO2 emissions by increasing the use of bio-renewable and recyclable materials while promoting the value of these activities throughout the supply chain.
DIC Corporation and Sun Chemical’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, which shows the company’s commitment to sustainability in its products, operations and collaborations.
Sun Chemical also received the 2023 FTA Sustainability Excellence Award for its development of mono-web coatings, which allows for packaging to more easily be recycled and composted. During interpack, Sun Chemical received the WorldStar Global
Packaging Award for the development of a recyclable mono-layer pouch in cooperation with Elif, and also was honored with TLMI’s Calvin Frost Sustainability Leadership Journey Award.
As for capital improvements, Sun Chemical’s Color Materials division opened a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient mixing plant in Cologne, Germany in 2022. The new mixing plant enables Sun Chemical to produce more efficiently and meet the plastics industry’s increasing quality requirements. The facility comprises more than 1,700 square meters of floor space to ensure an increase in production capacity.
“Despite downward economic pressures, at DIC Corporation, we made steady investments in preparation for the post-coronavirus world, including construction of a new factory in western India, and expansion of factories in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Northeastern China,” Sota said.
As for raw materials, the trajectory of price increases from last year and early 2022 have softened a bit in limited areas, albeit not to any acceptable level of recovery. If the current cost trend continues, it could evolve into a more favorable economic environment.
However, the volatile global energy markets will most likely overrule any favorable feed stock trends and keep inflation elevated. Global demand will also dictate how availability and prices are impacted. Price pressure on nitrocellulose, products derived from the crude tall oil value chain, and other bio-renewables will continue into 2023.
“In 2022, raw material trends continued on a downward trajectory due to soaring crude oil prices that have persisted since 2021. However, we recognize that they have peaked for the time being,” Miyake added. “Conversely, with regard to energy costs, due to the protracted crisis in Ukraine, especially in Europe, particularly in Germany, we expect high prices to continue. In other regions such as Japan, combined with the global inflation trend, we expect electricity and gas prices to remain high.”
As for 2023, Miyake reported that in terms of the short-term business environment, DIC expects a recovery in shipments centered on high-value-added products.
“We will continue to work with a strong sense of mission to enhance our value as a company capable of delivering sustainable prosperity,” Miyake concluded. “To that end we have established five priority business areas for promoting business portfolio transformation, maximizing our impacts on market growth and society: Sustainable Energy, Healthcare, Smart Living, Color Science, and Sustainable Packaging. By concentrating management resources in these five areas, we’ll promote the efficiency of our efforts toward Value Transformation and New Pillar Creation.”