Sustainability is an important topic for virtually every industry.

Ink manufacturers are developing – or have developed – solutions to meet sustainability goals, especially when it comes to packaging.

The growth of the packaging industry is expected to drive the global ink resins market, Transparency Market Research (TMR) reported.

As TMR noted in its report, “Ink Resins Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2019–2027,” printing ink manufacturers use ink resins as raw materials to impart significant characteristics to printing inks: high solid content, viscosity, gloss, and improved pigment wetting, per TMR. The global ink resins market was valued at $3 billion in 2018, according to TMR.

Research and Markets forecasts the market value to reach $6.3 billion by 2027. Some of the key factors influencing the market growth include the growth of packaging and energy curable inks and upgrading supply of raw materials for ink resins, according to Research and Markets.

And those aforementioned ink manufacturers are looking to their resins suppliers for bio-renewable content.

“Sustainability has been a topic of discussion for several years,” said Gene Cassidy, senior manager, corporate accounts at Lawter. “However, we have seen a much higher level of interest over the past year, particularly in the packaging ink market, due to more demand from brand owners.”

Pamela Carney global business director, resins and intermediates, Industrial Specialties, Ingevity, pointed out that the industry’s changing trends and requirements continue to underscore the importance of sustainability for all players in the ink production value chain.

Carney added that many of the industry’s raw material and end-product suppliers have also incorporated sustainability teams into their operations, which are dedicated to driving more eco-conscious processes not only into manufacturing and production but across the entire organization.

According to Carney, Ingevity’s sustainability team is committed to integrating responsible economic, environmental and social principles into its global business strategy and decision making, and ensuring the company subscribes fully to the Guiding Principles of the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care program.

Ingevity recently published its sustainability report. The company found that almost 80% of the raw materials used in the manufacturing of its products are renewable and do not compete with the food chain or contribute to deforestation. Ingevity considers sustainable products to be those that provide benefits beyond industry standards and continue to look at ways to reduce energy and water consumption, waste generation, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, as well as increase the recyclability and durability of its products.

Specialty Polymers approaches sustainability from not only a raw materials standpoint, according to marketing manager Jake Burroughs, but also through its operations and product performance.

“We participate in power saving programs through the Energy Trust of Oregon, capture our wastewater in a sustainable way, and provide water-based regulation-friendly polymer solutions to replace solvent-based technology,” said Burroughs, whose company received a Silver certification for sustainability from EcoVadis.

“Many ink and coating suppliers are looking for products that contain measurable bio-renewable content,” said Simon K. Foster, industry marketing manager, Printing & Packaging - Dispersions & Resins North America at BASF. “Many of our resins are used in water-based inks and coatings. Customers are able to use them in place of solvent-based alternatives and reduce VOCs without seeing a drop in performance.”

BASF produces JONCRYL 662, which Foster said contains 50% bio-renewable solids.

“Resins are also addressing the problem of package recyclability,” he added.

BASF’s JONCRYL HPB products, per Foster, “support barrier coating formulations that enable customers to get away from unrecyclable extruded polyethylene or harmful fluorochemicals.”

Ink formulators prefer rosin-based resins, Cassidy said, “as they are 75% to 80% in bio-renewable content.”

Despite stay-at-home orders and stores or companies shuttering, resins suppliers and ink manufacturers remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic since they support essential businesses.

Lawter has experienced a drop in demand – due to seasonality as well as the coronavirus – but has been otherwise unaffected as “virtually” all of the raw materials it uses for graphic arts resins are sourced domestically, according to Cassidy.

Raw material supply is stable and Specialty Polymers hasn’t dealt with interruptions in operations due to raw material supply, Burroughs said.

Same goes for BASF, per Foster.

“From a raw material perspective,” he said, “we have not seen any major disruptions or impacts to our operations as the supply chain has adjusted to the ‘new normal’.

“The chemical supply chain is integral to our society,” he continued. “As we strive to maintain the health and well being of ourselves and each other, our teams are also working hard to ensure business continuity and minimize the overall impact to business operations.

“As a backwardly-integrated resin producer with domestic raw material and finished product manufacturing, we are in a strong position to provide consistent supply to our customers and the essential value chains they support.”

However, “As demand for consumer goods, food and medical supplies has increased over the last months, we have seen a corresponding increase in demand for resins as key raw materials in print and packaging,” Foster concluded.

Specialty Polymers reported “consistent” growth.

“We have experienced consistent growth year over year with our customers in the graphic arts market,” Burroughs said. “In recent years as the broader US economy has strengthened, the demand for ink resins, particularly for packaging, has kept pace with the increase in consumer spending habits.”

“2019 was another relatively stable year for resin suppliers,” Foster said. “Continuing a trend we’ve seen over the last few years, low, positive growth for the industry overall led to ongoing high competition amongst suppliers and formulators for a relatively finite amount of business. In contrast to previous years, raw material costs remained fairly stable, which enabled the industry to remain mostly consistent with the prior year.”

Meanwhile, publication and commercial inks remain a challenge. “With the further contraction of publication print, we have seen a similar decline in our sales,” Matt Westin, director of technical services at Resinall, said. “We do not see things getting better any time soon.”

Looking ahead

The economy has been deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Even if countries and states end their lockdowns soon, there is still uncertainty ahead.
“There is a great deal of uncertainty in every industry for the next 12 months, Burroughs said.

“At this stage there are many unknowns, and we’re working through the near and mid-term uncertainty collaboratively as an industry,” Foster added. “Demand in our sector is heavily influenced by general economic activity. A prolonged economic downturn would be detrimental to all players in our value chain. As social distancing measures are reduced in the future, we will get a better sense of the economy’s ability and agility to bounce back from the crisis we’re all presently weathering.”

Burroughs expect the chemical industry to keep plugging along. Cassidy believes the packaging ink market will remain strong for the foreseeable future, as well.

“Especially,” Cassidy said, “considering the current trend of more dining at home versus eating out.”

However, the publication ink market is expected to decline more than projected due to reduced advertising budgets – switching from traditional to internet marketing is restraining market growth, per Research and Markets – while the commercial ink market should be relatively stable, he added.