Sun Chemical to Raise Prices on Inks and Coatings

Sun Chemical has announced price increases and surcharges averaging 6 to 9 percent on all inks and coatings, which started June 1. These increases will be applied to all inks and coatings sold in the U.S. and Canada.
    
In addition, Sun Chemical has announced price increases averaging 9 percent on all inks and coatings starting June 1 in Latin America. These increases include all packaging inks and coatings sold in South America, Mexico, Caribbean and Central America.
    
The ink industry continues to experience significant increases in the costs of raw materials, largely due to rising prices for oil and related petrochemicals, which are the key ingredients in many ink and coating products. Other leading factors contributing to rising costs have been environmental compliance, freight, rapidly escalating employee health care and other inflationary costs. In addition, there also are shortages of some key raw materials due to production cutbacks, increased demand worldwide and a lack of investment in new industry capacity for production of several key raw material sectors such as resins and acrylic acid-based derivatives.
    
“Sun Chemical has improved its productivity through programs such as Six Sigma and continues to make capital investments to improve efficiencies,” said Chris Morrissey, Sun Chemical corporate vice president, marketing.  “However, the announced price increases only partially offset the impact of spiraling costs, which are rising faster than we can absorb them and still sustain a minimum level of return on our capital investment.”
    
“Despite all the challenges facing our industry, Sun Chemical remains positive and optimistic about the future,” said Wes Lucas, Sun Chemical president, chairman and CEO. “Customers require and value our world-class solutions, consisting of inks, technical service and industry-leading research and development, which we are committed to continuing to provide.”