Flint Group has announced a 6 percent price increase on offset energy curable inks and coatings in North America, effective July 1, 2018, as a result of “unprecedented” raw material trends related to energy curable materials.
According to Flint Group, photoinitiators, monomers and oligomers are the most affected, in great part due to the powerful domino effect of raw material manufacturer shutdowns in China. These shutdowns are the result of China’s Blue Skies initiative, known as Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution.
“As the year has progressed, the challenging supply chain for photoinitiators, monomers and oligomers has hit raw material suppliers harder than expected. Supply is tighter than ever, and, as a result, raw material costs have increased substantially,” says Mike Green, VP Sales North America of Flint Group’s CPS Inks division. “Flint Group has secured all the raw materials we need to meet customers’ current needs.”
In the case of photoinitiators, Green says Flint Group is “fully prepared” to use proven alternative raw materials in its UV ink formulas. “The identified alternatives to the existing UV photoinitiators are considerably more expensive, however, therefore we will avoid them unless absolutely necessary.”
The company says it will continue to monitor all trends and keep customers informed.
Serving the printing and packaging industry, Flint Group develops, manufactures and markets a portfolio of printing consumables, including: a range of conventional and energy curable inks and coatings for most offset, flexographic and gravure applications; pressroom chemicals, printing blankets and sleeves for offset printing; photopolymer printing plates and sleeves, plate-making equipment and flexographic sleeve systems; pigments and additives for use in inks and other colorant applications.
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