Flint Group has announced a price increase to all of its packaging ink products sold within Europe to take effect by the end of this month.
According to the company’s press release, “significant cost headwinds have been witnessed in pigments, solvents,resins and freight, placing uninterrupted cost pressure on the Packaging Inks’ business.”This is hardly surprising, given that there is a general shortage of raw materials. This has forced all the ink suppliers to raise their prices over the past two years and this situation shows little sign of improving.
Doug Aldred, President of Flint’s Packaging Inks & Resins business, says that the company is committed to reducing costs, adding: “However, raw material and freight inflation has become untenable, hence, we are forced to look toward the market to alleviate some of the cost burden we face.”
Flint has said that the price increase will vary depending on the composition of each product’s composition but has not said how much prices will go up by. However, it has said that the price increases will come into force this month though Flint says that it has already agreed price increases with some customers.
Curiously, Aldred concluded: “Nevertheless, customers will be pleased to learn that we will be introducing new, high-performing products throughout the course of 2019, helping to improve printing efficiencies and support process optimisation within our customers’ press room; the influence of these changes will be especially pertinent for our Paper & Board customers.”
It’s worth noting that these new, more efficient, inks will only offset the price increases if they are sold at similar prices to the current inks. But, as every printer worldwide knows, manufacturers always use the greater efficiency of their products to justify – you guessed it – even higher prices.
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