Flint Group increases narrow web ink prices in Europe

Flint Group will increase by 5-8 percent prices of narrow web inks starting July 1 2010. The company cited a supply/demand imbalance on the raw materials market and the increase of costs of base chemicals as reasons for the rise.  

‘Reductions in capacity are impacting on all areas of the industry with the packaging and narrow web ink markets also similarly affected by global shortages in key materials such as acrylates or acrylic resins which are derived from acrylic acid,’ explained Jens Zimmermann, director global marketing Flint Group Packaging & Narrow Web. ‘Acrylic acid is facing a global shortage, which started in North America after the production incidents at Dow and Arkema, but has now spread around the world. After significant increases prices for acrylates and acrylic resins are still clearly under upward pressure as a consequence, later also because the prices for styrene, which is used as co-monomer in styrene acrylic resins, are back at almost the record levels they were in 2008. As acrylic resins are a key raw material for water based inks while acrylates is so for UV inks, the issues as described above are causing significant challenges for water-based and UV based inks. 

‘Flint Group is conscious of the fact that its customers are not having an easy time at the moment and that many raw materials together with energy and transport will continue to rise. However, Flint Group is not exempt from this phenomenon, and even though our technical team is constantly searching for ways to mitigate these effects, we ourselves are incurring tremendous increases despite our ongoing cost containment programs. The cost increases have now proved too large and the need to pass on these higher costs to our customers is necessary.’  

Click here for more stories about Flint Group on L&L.com.