Sun Chemical to Increase Prices on Inks and Consumables in North America

Faced with continued increases in the costs of raw materials and volatility in the global supply chain, Sun Chemical will raise prices on Feb. 1, 2011 in North America by:

• $0.14 per pound for sheetfed blending bases.
• $0.10 per pound for sheetfed blacks, whites and varnishes.
• $0.12 per pound for heatset process black and color inks.
• $0.07 per pound for solvent-based liquid inks.
• $0.10 per pound for all white liquid inks.
• 5 percent for screen inks.
• 8-12 percent for heatset Pantone Matching Systems(PMS), fluorescent, metallic inks and overprint varnishes,
• 5-10 percent for silicones and washes.
• 5 percent for fountain solutions.

For more than two years, raw materials cost and supply instability have significantly impacted the ink industry. Non-traditional factors that began early in 2010 to impact the price of major feedstocks and raw materials continue, including supply base consolidation and capacity curtailment, significant decline in refinery margins, and rationalized operating rates to meet diminished demand. The combination of these factors has led to the elevated costs on such raw materials as TiO2, rosin and polyamide resins, nitrocellulose and many more.

“In some cases, such as for TiO2, we have seen the global capacity reduced by as much as 10 percent in three years, demand driven up, and raw materials for manufacturing TiO2 become tight,” said Tony Renzi, vice president of product management, liquid inks, North American Inks, Sun Chemical. “These factors have resulted in an increase in this raw material pricing of 15 percent in 2010 with another 8 percent increase announced for Jan. 1, 2011. With the market’s continued tightness, TiO2 is forecasted to increase another 6-8 percent quarterly in 2011. Factors like these for TiO2 and other raw materials have made it difficult to offset the rising raw material costs and unfortunately has forced us to pass some of these costs on to our customers.“

“At Sun Chemical, we have worked and 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 Charles Murray, president, North American Inks, Sun Chemical. “We will continue to work closely with our customers to help them get the most possible out of their inks, and to develop new value oriented products and services that can help them grow their business despite this challenging marketplace.”