Increasing in Application of Digital Printing to Drive the Demand for Printing Inks Market

Introduction

The global printing inks market is heading toward major consolidations to increase efficiency, support growth, and achieve more leverage with suppliers and customers. Market consolidation has become a long-term trend, particularly in the western market, with limited organic growth.

The demand for printing inks has been significantly growing in recent years on account of the growing trends toward more environment-friendly ink formulation, energy-curable inks, and digital inks.

Moreover, the growing demand for printed material in various end-use industries such as advertising, labeling, and packaging is expected to boost the printing inks market in the coming years. Furthermore, factors such as increasing trends toward packed food products and the growing adoption of electrophotography are likely to augment the demand for flexography printing inks and digital inks over the forecast period.

Rise in Application of Digital Printing to Drive Printing Inks Market

Digital printing is fast growing into label production and electrophotography. Digital printing has become highly popular among numerous brand owners due to its quick turnaround capability. Recent advancements in digital printing, such as digital carton cutting, creasing, and other finishing technologies, have expanded the scope of flexible packaging, corrugated packaging, and folding carton applications.

Because of the benefits of the inkjet process, such as its non-contact nature and low cost, it's widely utilized for printing large formats on a variety of substrates, making it ideal for packaging. It can be more easily integrated into existing conversion lines than toner systems. The demand for hygienic, safe packaging has increased due to the COVID-19 epidemic, culminating in the emergence of flexographic printing.

Growing Technological Advancements to Generate New Opportunities

The printing inks market has witnessed a lot of technological advancements in the last two decades. The largest technological trend in this industry is the popularity of digital printing and inkjet inks.

The printing inks manufacturing process basically combines basic components such as resins, pigments, solvents, and additives. Generally, the ink manufacturing takes place using the following two processes: varnish manufacture (proper mixing/blending of solvents, resins, and additives) and pigment dispersion.

Some of the major printing inks manufacturing technologies include:

• Lithography: This is one of the most widely used technologies for producing printing inks. In this process, a flat metal plate is used on which image areas are worked using a greasy substance so that the ink will adhere to them, the area where the image to be printed is called “ink-receptive,” and the blank area is “ink-repellant” in nature.
• Gravure printing: Rotogravure printing or gravure printing is a high-speed and high-quality printing method and primarily a long-run process. The process generally produces fine and detailed images and is used for high-volume printing of wrappings, wallpapers, and packaging. The major challenge of this process includes its higher cost and is not preferred for short runs.

Moreover, major players have introduced digital ink technologies for magnificent outcomes, including high-performance and high-quality digital inks.

Impact of COVID-19

Various manufacturing sites were closed due to the COVID-19 impact in 2020, and demand for packaging has decreased. As a result, the packaging industry's usage of printing inks was affected. The food and beverage business, on the other hand, has begun to revive and had a favorable impact. In 2021, the sector was on the mend, and manufacturers had overcome the severe hurdles posed by the pandemic.

The key players in the market are shifting toward an agile supply chain network model that has multiple pathways to prevent single points of failure. It can help them balance costs with better business continuity and sustainability assurance. Shifting from single country hubs to more extensive regional supply networks will initiate collaborative partnerships and industry associations. Stakeholders invest in resources and infrastructure that can quickly enable new manufacturing and supply nodes when required. To stimulate the local economy, several governments have already announced subsidies and incentives.

Regional Insights

The printing inks market is segmented into four regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America.

The North America printing inks market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Moreover, significant growth in the demand for print labels owing to a rapid rise in digital print technology in the region is further expected to spike market growth over the forecast period. The strong demand for printed labels from the FMCG sector, especially food, beverage, cosmetics, and toiletry, supported by their profound influence on consumer purchasing patterns, is expected to drive the demand for printing inks in the labeling application over the forecast period.

Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing printing inks market. Asia-Pacific printing inks market is predicted to be worth USD 4,772.89 million by 2030, increasing at 3.1% CAGR.

Asia-Pacific dominated the global printing inks market in 2020 and is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period. Rising consumption of packaged food items, coupled with robust growth in the packaging and labeling industry owing to the emergence of various businesses, including food & beverage industry, consumer goods, health care sector, e-Commerce, has positively impacted market growth in the region.

Key Highlights

• The printing inks market was valued at USD 16,569.30 million in 2021 and is anticipated to generate USD 20,827.02 million by 2030. The market is expected to register growth at a CAGR of 2.9% during the assessment period.
• Based on product, the global printing inks market is segmented into gravure, lithographic, flexographic, digital printing, and others. The lithographic market is overtaken and expected to generate USD 7,998.77 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 2.6%.
• By resin, the printing inks market is classified into modified rosin, modified cellulose, acrylic, polyurethane, and others. The acrylic segment is anticipated to generate USD 8,231.96 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 2.55%.
• The printing inks market is segmented into applications such as packaging & labels, corrugated cardboards, commercial printing/publishing, and others. The packaging & labels segment held the greatest share of the market, with an anticipated value of 6,893.17 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 2.48% during the projection period.

Competitive Players

1. ALTANA
2. Dainichiseika Color & Chemicals Mfg. Co. Ltd
3. Dow
4. Epple Druckfarben AG
5. Flint Group
6. FUJIFILM Corporation
7. Huber Group Deutschland GmbH
8. SAKATA INX CORPORATION
9. Sanchez SA de CV
10. SICPA HOLDING SA
11. Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA
12. Sun Chemical
13. T&K TOKA Corporation
14. Tokyo Printing Ink Mfg Co. Ltd
15. Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co. Ltd
16. Wikoff Color Corporation
17. Yip's Chemical Holdings Limited
18. Zeller+Gmelin

Recent Developments

• October 2020 - DIC Corporation announced that its subsidiary Sun Chemical Corporation entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the 100% shares of Sensient Imaging Technologies with this acquisition, DIC Corporation added a new product group to its jet inks portfolio, thereby assisting it to expand its geographical presence and product portfolio of printing inks. 
• December 2019- ALTANA purchased Overprint Varnish Specialist Schmid Rhyner AG.
• June 2018- Toyo Ink Brazil Ltd. introduced a new range of polyurethane-based inks for laminated packaging applications. This new line of PU-based lamination inks offered by the company includes general-purpose LIOTECH solvent-based gravure and flexo systems.

Segmentation

1. By Product
   1. Gravure
   2. Lithographic
   3. Flexographic
   4. Digital Printing
   5. Others
2. By Resin
   1. Modified rosin
   2. Modified cellulose
   3. Acrylic
   4. Polyurethane
   5. Others
3. By Application
   1. Packaging & Labels
   2. Corrugated Cardboards
   3. Commercial Printing/Publishing
   4.  Others