All of that has changed since COVID-19 struck, though.

Headquartered in Mexico City, Sanchez SA de CV is the largest ink manufacturer in Mexico and Central America. Managing director Ernesto J. Sanchez said that COVID-19 led to some restrictions in business.

“With no doubt, COVID-19 has affected our business in México, as well as in the Latin American countries where we have operations,” Sanchez added. “Although in México and most of the countries we were considered essential business and local governments allowed us to continue operating, we did suffer some cuts in our business hours, as well as in the number of employees that could work.”

“We also experienced shortages of raw materials, due to the closure of some of our suppliers’ plants,” Sanchez added. “Overall, we managed to keep our operations running.”

Fernando Tavara, president, Sun Chemical Latin America, said that due to the pandemic, the overall GDP level in Latin America is expected to decrease by 9.4% in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Normally there is a high correlation of growth in the packaging market with GDP levels, but during the first part of the year, performance in flexible packaging has continued to remain positive and much more resilient throughout the crisis compared to the much lower overall GDP levels. We expect a reduction in the second half of the year,” Tavara added.

“The publication market, on the other hand, has dropped significantly and has been the most impacted printing market this year,” Tavara reported. “The heatset market has gone down steadily, but we expect it will rebound, although it will not reach pre-pandemic levels. The coldset market, however, will not recover from lost volumes. Commercial digital printing is slowly starting to expand across the region but hasn’t quite taken off yet. It is a market that likely will face a setback in growth in Latin America because of the pandemic.”

Richard Möller, managing director hubergroup Brasil, said that the pandemic has had an economic impact on almost all segments and industries worldwide, including South America's printing industry.

“The packaging printing for essential products like food or pharmaceuticals was the least affected,” Möller observed. “Other segments had a drastic reduction in demand and in those many companies were forced to suspend their operations. Local restrictions make it difficult for printers to return to regular operations. But in some countries, we have already noticed a gradual recovery.”

Guilherme Ribeiro, executive director of INX Brazil, reported that the ink and printing markets have fluctuated considerably in recent months, and the intensity has varied according to each segment and each country in question.

“We must keep in mind that some countries have yet to pass their COVID-19 peak, and a country as large as Brazil presents different degrees of infection rates in each of its states,” Ribeiro added. “The impact is undoubtedly enormous, but each region must be analyzed individually."

Sergio Pera, director of Toyo Ink Brasil Ltda., reported that in light of COVID-19, the ink and printing markets have been impacted heavily in Latin and South America.

“In Brazil, we could see a huge drop in offset, coldest, heatset and digital demand in April, May and June,” Pera observed. “In July, the market reacted, and the numbers show promise of an increase but at levels much less than expected. Liquid ink is stable with a slight growth of high-performance products for pouches and retort. We can see growth in packaging, especially in high-performance products such as standup pouches for liquid soaps, baby wipes, cleaning wipes and retort pouches.”

In particular, Möller said that the flexible or cardboard packaging printing for food, hygiene and pharmacy was the least affected.

“As part of the supply chain for essential products and therefore dedicated as system relevant, most converters were allowed to produce by following the governmental rules and adopting precaution measures Möller reported. “The most affected market was commercial printing. Many printers were not allowed to operate to due lockdowns and quarantines. In addition, limitation of activities in other industries (entertainment, new product or service launches etc.) has caused a sudden break of demand.”

“Of course, as in many of the countries, packaging was the force that kept us busy,” Sanchez observed. “March and April were excellent months, as we delivered big amounts of products to clients in the packaging of food, drugs and first need products. News and heatset inks suffered the most, but fortunately, volumes have started to come back.”

“In general terms, the products that are part of and have passed through the food chain have seen an increase in demand,” said Ribeiro. “Solvent-based inks for this segment had significantly lower sales at the beginning of the second quarter, with customers reducing their inventories. However, the sales volume has already recovered. The same thing occurred in the 2-piece metal deco segment. Demand increased with great intensity in June and July. On the other hand, our product lines that are not related to the food chain - such as offset inks - are still selling well below normal levels.”

Tavara said that despite the challenges created by the pandemic, overall the first half of the year has been strong for the flexible packaging segment in Latin America.

“We saw an increase in customer demand for solvent inks related to packaged foods, which more than offset the significant drop in the demand for publication inks and the corrugated segment to a minor extent,” Tavara pointed out. “While we believe the water-based inks for corrugated board will rebound post-pandemic and that heatset inks will bounce back at some point in the middle, we believe the coldset ink market will stabilize at its new low level.” 

Some countries are showing more growth than others in the region.

“All countries were affected by the COVID-19 crisis proportionally and, therefore, not able to register growth,” Möller said. “We note that some countries seem to recover faster than others, like Paraguay and Uruguay for example. But it all depends on the acceleration of the economy in total. Brazil, although very affected by the pandemic, also shows positive signs of recovery.”

“Brazil is showing growth in some segments like 2-piece metal deco, with new can plants being opened, a several year trend towards aluminum and away from glass, and high external demand,” Ribeiro said. “Other countries with stable economies - Peru, Colombia and Chile - are showing good growth in ink and related markets.”

“Throughout most of Latin America, growth has been steady in flexible packaging in the first quarter. However, due to lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Peru has been the most negatively impacted in terms of printing and ink,” Tavara said.