Kohl & Madden Raises Commercial Ink Prices

Kohl & Madden, a member of the Sun Chemical group of companies, announced price increases of 4 percent to 8 percent on its commercial printing inks effective Jan. 1, according to Brad Bergey, president, Kohl & Madden.
    
Due to the current imbalance in the supply and demand of many of the raw materials used in the formulation of printing inks and varnishes, Kohl & Madden has had to accept multiple price increases over the last months while also dealing with shortages and allocations on some raw materials, Mr. Bergey said. The underlying factors of this imbalance include strong worldwide demand for specialty chemicals, high oil prices, inflation, poor profitability of the chemical industry and as a consequence, a lack of investment in new capacity. This problem is compounded by increasing cost pressure from environmental compliance, transport, packaging, health care and other inflationary operating cost increases. Mr. Bergey noted that Kohl & Madden also continues to make considerable efforts to reduce cost.