The Asia-Pacific region is the largest geographic market for printing ink, with Ink World estimating the ink market at more than $6.5 billion. It is not a homogenous region - China, the largest economy in the region, will be the subject of a separate Ink World report in our September-October 2019 issue. Meanwhile, Japan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia are some of the key nations in the region.

Five of the eight largest international ink companies – DIC Corporation, Toyo Ink Group, Sakata INX, T&K Toka and Tokyo Printing Ink – are headquartered in Japan. hubergroup, the sixth-largest ink global manufacturer, has a major presence in India.

Ink manufacturers report that the graphic arts industry is seeing growth in the region, led by the packaging segment.

“The pace of the market shift from publication to packaging has accelerated recently,” said Masamichi Sota, executive officer of the Printing Ink Business at DIC Corporation. “Publication demand decrease is more obvious than before, even in Japan, China and Australia, where it was relatively large. In China, we’re seeing a negative impact from the US-China trade war in the printing industry.”

Shingo Watano, GM – International Operations Department of Sakata INX, said packaging and digital inks are doing well.

“With the increase in demand from economic growth and population increase, etc., packaging ink sales are increasing overall in the Asian region including India,” Watano added. “Ink for paper media is also growing in India and China. The demands in the digital printing industries for toner and inkjet ink is increasing every year as well.”

Takashi Yamauchi, division director, global business division, Toyo Ink Co., Ltd., said India has been a particularly good market for Toyo Ink this past year.

“The new NEXpress basket of high-performance products and services has been faring well in India, following its launch at Printpack 2019,” Yamauchi continued. “Demand for NEXpress offset solutions and sustainable printing materials continue to rise, such as long-established VOC-free formulations and a new cobalt-free system for the package and label, and commercial printing markets.

“In line with growing regional and global demand, Toyo Ink Group’s printing and information business continues to focus on the development of next-generation UV inks, inkjet inks for on-demand printing and other functional inks, all areas that show growth potential,” Yamauchi added.

Hirofumi Ozaki, president of Toka Ink International (Hong Kong) Ltd., said printing demand is linked to the flow of the economy, and the highly export-dependent NIEs similarly decrease as the world economy slows.

“Since ASEAN’s dependence on domestic demand is relatively high, I feel that the decrease due to the slowdown in the world economy is moderate and maintains demand relatively,” Ozaki observed. “While the number of books, newspapers, etc. has been steadily reduced due to the transformation of information media, packages including flexible packaging have been steady.

“The demand for packaging such as food, cosmetics and labels is especially increasing. The printing base materials are spreading from conventional paper to non-absorbing material such as vapor-deposited paper and PP/PET in order to add value, and it is felt that UV conversion is progressing in that flow.”

Rajesh Bhasin, joint president, Chemicals Business, Uflex, reported that the growth of India’s printing industry is dependent on the growth of India’s population and economy.

“Print media continues to grow in India,” Bhasin said. “According to our estimates, the packaging printing industry is growing at 12%, commercial printing by 5% and digital by about 30%. Within this segment, certain segments are transforming while continuing to register organic growth. This has ensured the corresponding addition of hardware too. Prepress to postpress is getting automated with the addition of software. It is heartening to see that the printers are accepting and adapting to change in technology.

“As with other regions, here too, the publication market (print media) is almost stagnant or declining. However, the packaging industry’s outlook is most positive, driven by continuous technology upgradation. It is expected to maintain a pace of 10% to 12%,” added Bhasin.

Jason Lee, president of Kwang Myung Ink Co. Ltd (KMI), said the graphic arts industry in Asia-Pacific is losing momentum, especially in the publication sector, like most other regions in the world.

“Because many countries in Asia-Pacific now have well developed IT and internet infrastructures, the depression in the printing industry is accelerating,” Lee added. “Korea is a typical example of how IT and digital display have been encroaching on the printing industry. Under such contraction in the graphic arts industry, polarization amongst printers (i.e. large printers vs. small printers/quality printers vs. subcontracted printers) is widening as well. In general, East Asia is suffering most from these phenomena, while South Asia is still holding up relatively well.”

Charlie Lee, head of overseas sales for Daihan Ink, said Korea’s domestic market averaged 1.5% to 2.5% growth compared to 2017.

“But for all those companies, export was decreased,” Lee said. “Due to environment and labor cost issues, the price of Chinese products are getting higher now, so it looks like ink from India is taking more markets, or overall the pie of the printing industry got smaller.”

Ink suppliers are reporting strong growth in a range of countries. Sakata INX’s Watano pointed to India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand as being particularly good markets. Bhasin said Uflex is experiencing strong growth in several markets, including the aforementioned countries, as well as Bangladesh, and Malaysia.

“India’s growth continues to surge, fueling demand throughout the region,” said Yamauchi. “The growing population and the increasing personal disposable incomes among the developing nations continue to have a positive impact on the printing industry. For Toyo, India, Vietnam and Thailand have been the markets showing the strongest growth.”

DIC has seen more business opportunities in inland China, Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh, which started economic development, Sota said.

“Vietnam and the Philippines, which have maintained relatively high economic growth, are expected to remain strong in the future,” Ozaki said. “Recently, they are paid attention as a risk avoidance destination of China due to US-China trade friction. Also, in the medium and long term, India with ‘high economic growth rate,’ ‘many middle classes’ and ‘big market over 1.2 billion people’ is still attractive. In any country, as mentioned above, we expect growth in UV printing of packages.”

South East Asia, Vietnam and Myanmar are the most promising, while South Asia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan still have good growth potential, KMI’s Lee added.

The Packaging Ink Market

In the Asia-Pacific region, gravure has traditionally been the leading liquid ink packaging technology, but leading ink manufacturers report that flexo and UV are continually making inroads.

Bhasin said that the package printing market is one of the strongest growth areas in printing.

“There is a gradual shift from gravure to flexo because of shorter runs. We are witnessing steady growth in UV LED based technology,” he said. “UV offers several advantages like superior productivity, excellent resistance properties, no VOC, good compatibility with both absorbent and non-absorbent substrates, and superior aesthetics. LED installations too are on the rise as offset and flexo printers realize significant advantages through electricity savings, no mercury, suitability within plastics, and low odor besides low carbon footprints.”

Ozaki said the flexo and UV markets are growing, too.

“In the case of UV inks, the export volume of TOKA Group products is also increasing, but I feel that our share has not increased proportionally with the market growth. Further market development is necessary for the future,” he added.

“Here in Korea and in Japan, film packaging is done by gravure ink, not flexo ink,” said Charlie Lee. “The gravure ink market is growing up, which means that film packaging is good. But due to the campaign of using less plastic, we are not sure if it will continually go up or not. Flexo, UV, and normal offset ink for packaging keep going well, so we put more effort into gravure ink, UV ink and offset packaging ink.”

“Stronger growth is expected in flexo inks,” DIC’s Sota added. “The growth in UV is not as strong as expected, especially due to the price hike of photoinitiators from the end of 2018, which acted as a deterrent on UV’s growth.”

“We are seeing stronger growth in packaging inks including flexo ink,” said Sakata INX’s Watano, who added that the UV market is expected to grow.

“The UV market for the functional printing ink segment continues to be a strong driver of growth and is expected to expand in coming years. We will continue to promote UV product development for the paper container market in Japan and China, in response to increased environmental consciousness,” Yamauchi said. “We are seeing a gradual increase in flexo press installations and demand for inks for flexible packaging in India and Japan, resulting in the expansion of the flexo market in the region. In line with rising demand, we will continue to focus on promoting biomass and water-based product lines in Japan and expanding sales of flexo inks mainly to markets in Asia and Europe.”

“Although the publication inks market has encountered a severe depression, we find there is still a great demand for quality inks and professional technical support from many printers who are not satisfied with their existing suppliers,” KMI’s Lee said. “We’ve been penetrating these markets with our quality products and professional service networks very successfully. And it is absolutely true that there is a bigger potential in packaging inks. KMI will launch a full range of UV inks, including UV LED and UV flexo later this year.”

Opportunities for Growth

Ink suppliers see that packaging will continue to offer the best possibilities for growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Historically, gravure printing has been the major technology for flexible packages in Asia; however, we are seeing the market shift toward stronger growth in flexo printing,” Sota said. “That said, the future market trend remains unclear as paper packaging is now being revisited due to the plastic waste issue.”

Watano said Sakata INX expects further growth for packaging inks due to the economic growth and increase in population, and also improvement in living standards of the middle and low income class.

“Additionally, we forecast that steady demand to continue for a while regarding ink used on paper media in some parts of the world,” said Watano. “We also believe that the demand for environmentally conscious products will increase in newly developing countries in this region.”

“The ink business of this region is becoming commoditized, and local responses such as local stock sales, prompt and effective troubleshooting, and the establishment of human relationships will lead to differentiation,” Ozaki said.

Yamauchi said the packaging market once again shows strong signs of expansion in 2019, both at home and abroad.

“In Japan, sales of gravure inks for the packaging of food and drinks continue to be strong,” he said. “Demand for low-energy UV products remains strong on a global scale. The functional printing ink segment is expected to boost group profits as we continue to promote UV product development for the paper container market in Japan and China, in response to increased environmental consciousness.

“Plant-derived biomass inks and adhesives were launched in Japan in 2018 with early success,” Yamauchi added. “In addition to offset, gravure and flexo inks, our biomass lineup offers products for the packaging market, such as laminating adhesives and hot-melt adhesives. With the recent tightening of environmental standards particularly in China, Toyo Group companies throughout Asia will be making a strong push to promote biomass and eco-friendly coatings and packaging materials to meet with increased demand for sustainable development through renewable and eco-friendly resources.

“Tightening environmental regulations and recycling trends will continue to drive demand for greener materials and technologies,” Yamauchi said. “To keep up with the demand for products with increased eco advantages, Toyo Ink is not only working to improve the end-of-life recovery of its packaging systems, but is also focusing on delivering innovations in water-based, electron beam (EB) and plant-based biomass inks. In Japan, our biomass inks have been adopted in the packaging of rice balls as a private-label brand sold at convenience stores.”

“Unlike commercial printing, packaging printing is getting better,” added Daihan Ink’s Lee. “This is not only for Korea, but also all other markets. Imports to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, etc. still increased compared with last year, which means there are still markets there.”

“Despite the general malaise in the Asia-Pacific printing market, the packaging sector still shows solid growth in all countries,” KMI’s Lee said.

“As the incomes of people in the developing countries in this region have increased, they are increasingly demanding better and more attractively packaged commodities, which contributes to growth in the packaging industry,” Lee added. “And e-commerce, which is still growing, has also promoted the growth of the packaging sector.”

“As far as India is concerned, we are experiencing a major drive by all stake holders including government, brand owners and packaging material producers towards environment protection and sustainability, leading to a special focus on developing solutions, complying with such needs,” Bhasin said. “We are also witnessing the introduction of most stringent food safety norms by brand owners and government agencies. Uflex has been working on such solutions for some time now and hence finding favors with both the brand owners and packaging material producers. We see a great opportunity for our inks, adhesives and coatings portfolio.”

“Packaging is set to have another big year in 2019,” Yamauchi concluded. “With the increasing working populations and changing lifestyles throughout the region, the demand for processed and on-the-go food products is fueling demand for flexible packaging materials and labels/seals in the food and beverage industry.”