According to Smithers Pira's report (global packaging outlook 2018), the global packaging market is worth more than $950 billion. Among them, Asia is the largest consumer area, accounting for 36% of the market, and the market is expanding; followed by North America and Western Europe, with 23% and 22% respectively. In recent years, the market share of flexible packaging has rebounded significantly.
Packaging ink industry is also on the rise. It is estimated that the sales volume of packaging ink in North America is about 2 billion US dollars, and the annual sales of Flexo Ink alone is more than 1 billion US dollars. Sheet fed offset ink and packaging gravure ink which can be used for folding cartons also have a considerable proportion in the ink market. Although inkjet printing is still in the early stage of development cycle, digital printing ink still attracts some market share of packaging ink market. Worldwide, gravure ink occupies a more significant share in the packaging market in Asia and Europe.
Three international groups interpret packaging ink Market
According to flint, the packaging ink market has been improved "in step" with flexible packaging, paper and paperboard packaging and labeling. Flexible packaging is becoming more common for a number of reasons, including light weight, excellent aesthetic performance and additional functionality, they said. On the other hand, for most people, the use of paper and cardboard packaging for beverages and aseptic products is more novel and convenient than ever. In the past few years, most ink manufacturers have acknowledged that there is no doubt that this is a market for quality service and price. Customers are always looking for value drivers, such as continuous innovation, true process expertise, compliance guidance, and the ability to drive strategic change.
For Huber group, according to their own situation, they will target the ink market into two parts: offset and liquid. In both areas, the growth in demand for special effects inks is designed to meet the demand for quality packaging due to the increasing complexity of print design and appearance. On the other hand, they noticed the pricing pressure of various standard packaging inks. For offset printing packaging, a part of the traditional ink business is slowly but continuously transferred to UV ink, and this situation is becoming more and more obvious.
Through the specific observation of the liquid ink industry, Huber group has seen some trends: reducing the number of ink product series used by users, or using concentrate for internal production to simplify the management of ink product supply chain; increasing the definition of all printing processes; taking enhanced consistency as a prerequisite for improving the standardization of production process; and quality control In particular, the adoption of more specific environmental restrictions on packaging (e.g. the adoption of more detailed environmental restrictions on packaging in Europe) and the adoption of more specific environmental restrictions on packaging in Europe.
"For liquid inks, growth in different market segments is closely related to geographical regions," Huber added. For example, in Europe, flexo ink growth faster than gravure ink, and in Asia, gravure ink growth is significantly faster than flexo ink
Toyo ink company believes that the packaging market as an example can illustrate the convenience of modern society. These changes require packaging ink to meet some physical requirements in technology. As a large number of enterprises become more and more global through integration and acquisition, printing enterprises and corresponding customer requirements are also beginning to converge. It can be seen that solvent based and UV ink will become the fastest growing packaging ink segment market.