David Savastano, Editor07.31.18
The Asia-Pacific region is the largest geographic market for printing ink, with Ink World projecting sales in the region at more than $6.5 billion annually. The Asia-Pacific region consists of smaller areas with their own characters. China is the largest economy in the region and will have its own separate Ink World report in our September-October 2018 issue.
Japan and India are major ink producers, with South Asia, Southeast Asia and ANZ (Australia-New Zealand) growing at their own pace. Ink manufacturers note that India, Indonesia and Vietnam are witnessing particularly solid growth.
Yuichi Kataura, International Operations Division’s GM, executive officer of Sakata INX, said that the region mostly enjoyed growth, although the Japanese market remained difficult. He added that India, Vietnam and Indonesia posted particularly good results.
“With the increase in demand from economic growth and population increase, packaging ink sales grew overall in the Asian region,” Kataura noted. “Ink for paper media also increased in India and China. On the other hand, the saturation of the Japanese domestic market and declining population is continuing to make the Japanese market environment a tough situation.
The volume of newspaper ink is especially decreasing, but a slight increase in packaging ink is seen in Japan because ready-made meals and convenience stores are increasing.”
Haruhiko Akutsu, GM, Commercial and Publication Business Department, Global Business Division, Toyo Ink Co., Ltd., also observed that printing in Japan is declining.
“Given the shrinking domestic information-related print market associated with the progress of digitization, we sought to optimize our business scale by product line and streamlined products in Japan,” Akutsu said, “Meanwhile, we focused on the development and sale of highly sensitive UV ink using leading-edge technology and other products such as inkjet ink for on-demand printing, thereby facilitating business growth.
“Domestic demand for inks for commercial printing of circulars and other materials, existing information publications including newspapers and magazines, and related materials remained weaker than expected,” Akutsu pointed out. “A decline in capacity utilization at printing companies in China and Southeast Asia due to an economic slowdown and environmental regulations also caused a fall in sales.” He added that Toyo Ink is seeing its strongest regional growth in India and Vietnam for both offset and gravure inks.
Masuyoshi Iwata, Printing Ink Products Division in DIC HQ, reported that DIC had a fairly good year in 2017 because of natural growth in developing countries. “India, Indonesia, and Vietnam are seeing the strongest growth in the Asia-Pacific region. However, profitability has been declining from the previous year due to rising raw material prices,” Iwata added.
“In Asia, the overall market grew, but the conventional sheetfed offset market was tough competition,” said Hirofumi Ozaki, president of Toka Ink International (Hong Kong) Ltd. “In Australia and New Zealand, offset conventional printing has been shifting to energy-saving UV. We are marketing UV ink in this region and have seen success in some areas.” Ozaki added that Vietnam and India are strong growth areas.
Charlie Lee, head of the Overseas Sales Department’s team at Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., noted that Daihan Ink’s new Vietnam ink factory, which began operations in October 2016, helps the company maintain its growth in the region.
“We are operating our Vietnam factory to have more competition and more flexibility on ink prices,” Lee said. “And not only supplying ink, we are trying to become the total printing solution provider by supplying printing consumables and by cooperating with digital printing equipment companies.”
Meanwhile, India continues to enjoy growth in printing and inks.
“The packaging market, especially for flexible plastic film printing, is seeing the greatest growth in India,” said Iwata.
“A temporary decrease in circulation of packaging materials was seen last year in India due to the abolition of high denomination notes and introduction of the new goods & services tax (GST),” Kataura reported. “From the latter half of last year, circulation of packaging materials gradually returned to a normal level. We believe that India continues to be a strong market for ink used on packaging.”
“Indian offset ink exports continue to grow to markets in the EU, Southeast Asia and Oceania,” Akutsu said. “Also, packaging demand for metal deco inks and gravure inks are seeing strong growth for Toyo.”
“The demand for ink and printing industries are increasing,” said Ozaki. “The greatest growth is coming from packaging.”
Lee noted that Daihan Ink has had many inquiries for UV varnish and UV inks from India. “It seems that there are more requests for high quality packaging printing in India,” Lee said.
Capital Improvements
Ink suppliers are building new operations throughout the region. For example, T&K Toka set up a factory and office in Thailand in 2016. Kataura noted that Sakata INX is making significant capital improvements in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We transferred and reinforced the metal-deco ink facility in China (Zhongshan city, Guangdong Province),” he said. “We reinforced our newspaper and offset ink facility in Shiga plant, Japan, and also built a new liquid ink technical building in our Tokyo plant. We have a plan to build a second offset ink plant in China (Maoming city, Guangdong Province), and in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, we are planning to set up a second packaging ink plant.”
Toyo Ink SC Holdings recently announced plans to enter the Myanmar market with the establishment of a production base in Yangon. “In July, we will be setting up a wholly-owned company Toyo Ink Myanmar Co., Ltd. with an initial paid-in capital of US$6.5 million,” Akutsu said. “The new factory is scheduled to break ground in November 2018 with commercial operation expected to begin a year later.
“In response to a global increase in environmental awareness, we will further develop environmentally friendly packaging products that are differentiated to meet regional needs, including water-based flexo inks, electron beam (EB) flexo inks for flexible packaging and biomass ink-based packaging for to-go foods at convenience stores,” Akutsu added. “Moreover, we will develop a supply system in regions where demand is growing by commencing the operation of additional gravure ink production facilities constructed in Southeast Asia at an early stage.”
For the packaging field, the Toyo Ink Group developed a product line of biomass inks using plant-derived raw materials and commenced sales in 2017.
“We also grew sales of water-based inks for flexible packaging in Japan and other Asian countries,” Akutsu observed. “Moreover, we promoted sales of new UV ink products developed at the new plant built at the Fuji Factory in Japan for continuous production with pigments and developed the application of inkjet inks for on-demand printing.”
For more information on the Asia-Pacific ink market, including the outlook for the region, see the online version at www.inkworldmagazine.com.
Japan and India are major ink producers, with South Asia, Southeast Asia and ANZ (Australia-New Zealand) growing at their own pace. Ink manufacturers note that India, Indonesia and Vietnam are witnessing particularly solid growth.
Yuichi Kataura, International Operations Division’s GM, executive officer of Sakata INX, said that the region mostly enjoyed growth, although the Japanese market remained difficult. He added that India, Vietnam and Indonesia posted particularly good results.
“With the increase in demand from economic growth and population increase, packaging ink sales grew overall in the Asian region,” Kataura noted. “Ink for paper media also increased in India and China. On the other hand, the saturation of the Japanese domestic market and declining population is continuing to make the Japanese market environment a tough situation.
The volume of newspaper ink is especially decreasing, but a slight increase in packaging ink is seen in Japan because ready-made meals and convenience stores are increasing.”
Haruhiko Akutsu, GM, Commercial and Publication Business Department, Global Business Division, Toyo Ink Co., Ltd., also observed that printing in Japan is declining.
“Given the shrinking domestic information-related print market associated with the progress of digitization, we sought to optimize our business scale by product line and streamlined products in Japan,” Akutsu said, “Meanwhile, we focused on the development and sale of highly sensitive UV ink using leading-edge technology and other products such as inkjet ink for on-demand printing, thereby facilitating business growth.
“Domestic demand for inks for commercial printing of circulars and other materials, existing information publications including newspapers and magazines, and related materials remained weaker than expected,” Akutsu pointed out. “A decline in capacity utilization at printing companies in China and Southeast Asia due to an economic slowdown and environmental regulations also caused a fall in sales.” He added that Toyo Ink is seeing its strongest regional growth in India and Vietnam for both offset and gravure inks.
Masuyoshi Iwata, Printing Ink Products Division in DIC HQ, reported that DIC had a fairly good year in 2017 because of natural growth in developing countries. “India, Indonesia, and Vietnam are seeing the strongest growth in the Asia-Pacific region. However, profitability has been declining from the previous year due to rising raw material prices,” Iwata added.
“In Asia, the overall market grew, but the conventional sheetfed offset market was tough competition,” said Hirofumi Ozaki, president of Toka Ink International (Hong Kong) Ltd. “In Australia and New Zealand, offset conventional printing has been shifting to energy-saving UV. We are marketing UV ink in this region and have seen success in some areas.” Ozaki added that Vietnam and India are strong growth areas.
Charlie Lee, head of the Overseas Sales Department’s team at Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., noted that Daihan Ink’s new Vietnam ink factory, which began operations in October 2016, helps the company maintain its growth in the region.
“We are operating our Vietnam factory to have more competition and more flexibility on ink prices,” Lee said. “And not only supplying ink, we are trying to become the total printing solution provider by supplying printing consumables and by cooperating with digital printing equipment companies.”
Meanwhile, India continues to enjoy growth in printing and inks.
“The packaging market, especially for flexible plastic film printing, is seeing the greatest growth in India,” said Iwata.
“A temporary decrease in circulation of packaging materials was seen last year in India due to the abolition of high denomination notes and introduction of the new goods & services tax (GST),” Kataura reported. “From the latter half of last year, circulation of packaging materials gradually returned to a normal level. We believe that India continues to be a strong market for ink used on packaging.”
“Indian offset ink exports continue to grow to markets in the EU, Southeast Asia and Oceania,” Akutsu said. “Also, packaging demand for metal deco inks and gravure inks are seeing strong growth for Toyo.”
“The demand for ink and printing industries are increasing,” said Ozaki. “The greatest growth is coming from packaging.”
Lee noted that Daihan Ink has had many inquiries for UV varnish and UV inks from India. “It seems that there are more requests for high quality packaging printing in India,” Lee said.
Capital Improvements
Ink suppliers are building new operations throughout the region. For example, T&K Toka set up a factory and office in Thailand in 2016. Kataura noted that Sakata INX is making significant capital improvements in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We transferred and reinforced the metal-deco ink facility in China (Zhongshan city, Guangdong Province),” he said. “We reinforced our newspaper and offset ink facility in Shiga plant, Japan, and also built a new liquid ink technical building in our Tokyo plant. We have a plan to build a second offset ink plant in China (Maoming city, Guangdong Province), and in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, we are planning to set up a second packaging ink plant.”
Toyo Ink SC Holdings recently announced plans to enter the Myanmar market with the establishment of a production base in Yangon. “In July, we will be setting up a wholly-owned company Toyo Ink Myanmar Co., Ltd. with an initial paid-in capital of US$6.5 million,” Akutsu said. “The new factory is scheduled to break ground in November 2018 with commercial operation expected to begin a year later.
“In response to a global increase in environmental awareness, we will further develop environmentally friendly packaging products that are differentiated to meet regional needs, including water-based flexo inks, electron beam (EB) flexo inks for flexible packaging and biomass ink-based packaging for to-go foods at convenience stores,” Akutsu added. “Moreover, we will develop a supply system in regions where demand is growing by commencing the operation of additional gravure ink production facilities constructed in Southeast Asia at an early stage.”
For the packaging field, the Toyo Ink Group developed a product line of biomass inks using plant-derived raw materials and commenced sales in 2017.
“We also grew sales of water-based inks for flexible packaging in Japan and other Asian countries,” Akutsu observed. “Moreover, we promoted sales of new UV ink products developed at the new plant built at the Fuji Factory in Japan for continuous production with pigments and developed the application of inkjet inks for on-demand printing.”
For more information on the Asia-Pacific ink market, including the outlook for the region, see the online version at www.inkworldmagazine.com.
