Flint Ink customers face price increase

Flint Ink North America has announced a price increase for packaging ink products ranging from 5-7 percent depending on ink type. The company says that the increase comes in response to the rising costs of transportation, energy and raw materials that are integral to printing inks. It says that since January, raw material feed stock costs have increased from nine per cent for ethylene, to 190 per cent for benzene. Crude oil costs are up 65 per cent and natural gas is up 67 per cent.
“Flint Ink has leveraged its purchasing power, vertical integration and company-wide productivity improvement programs to shield our customers from price increases for some time now. But the ongoing – in some cases, extreme – increased costs of raw materials makes this price increase necessary,” says Sean Mikaelian, vice president, general manager, Packaging Division, Flint Ink North America. Mikaelian adds, “We will minimize increases where possible and will continue to explore new ways to reduce costs without sacrificing quality."