The Asia-Pacific printing industry remains strong, particularly on the packaging side, and the ink industry continues to thrive in the region. Ink World estimates that ink sales in the region are more than $8 billion annually.

Masamichi Sota, president, Packaging & Graphic Business Group, and GM, Printing Material Products Division, DIC Corporation, said that between the second half of fiscal 2023 and the first half of fiscal 2024, the Asia-Pacific ink market experienced economic stagnation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and economic crises in emerging countries.

“However, the Asia-Pacific ink market has shown signs of a gradual recovery since around the end of 2023,” added Sota. “DIC has experienced significant market growth in China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand compared to 2023.”

“In Japan, the impact of digitalization has led to a decline in ink used for commercial printing,” Toru Kaneko, GM for the International Operations Department of the Corporate Planning Division at Sakata INX, said. “Packaging ink has also struggled in terms of sales and profits due to reduced consumption caused by inflation. In China, the real estate recession has cooled overall market consumption, resulting in sluggish performance.

“On the other hand, strong economic conditions in countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand have driven increased demand,” Kaneko pointed out. “Our activities have significantly boosted both sales and profits. We are experiencing growth in Asian countries, excluding Japan and China, with particularly strong performance in Thailand. Our business in Bangladesh is gaining traction and continues to grow.”

Ashish Pradhan, president Asia for Siegwerk, reported that Siegwerk has so far had a fantastic growth year with a year-to-date growth of almost 15% over the previous year in the region.

“This year, South East Asia is leading the growth with over 20% growth in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand,” said Pradhan. “India has also done well with a growth rate of over 12% and China is at over 7% volume growth.”

Hideyuki Hinataya, GM of T&K Toka’s Overseas Ink Sales Division, noted that T&K Toka saw growth in the printing and ink markets in the Asia-Pacific region during the past year.

“Packaging, mainly for food, is on the rise, but publishing/commercial printing is expected to shrink due to the shift to digital,” Hinataya observed, adding that T&K Toka saw the strongest growth in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Doug Aldred, chief commercial officer for Flint Group, noted that China’s packaging and printing ink markets have experienced steady growth over the past year, while the narrow web market experienced steady growth in Southeast Asia over the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

“In addition to growth in the Chinese markets, Chinese printing companies have increased their investments in Southeast Asia, driving business growth in the region, particularly in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines,” Aldred added.

China

China remains the largest economy in the region, and has flourishing printing and ink industries, both multinational and domestic. Pradhan said that China has come back to growth in 2024 and Siegwerk is seeing volumes and net revenues growing over the past year.

“We continue to invest in building a strong team and to create unique, differentiated products for the highly competitive China market,” said Pradhan.

“In line with our strategic vision, we sold the offset ink business in China in the first half of 2024,” said Kaneko. “Although the offset ink business has been discontinued, we will continue with the packaging ink and metal can ink businesses. Currently, demand is not very strong due to the real estate downturn in China, but it has been recovering compared to last year.”

“In China, DIC has made great strides to streamline its ink businesses, integrating operations throughout China even as it expands,” Sota reported. “DIC previously managed several dozen ink plants but has consolidated them all into just three plants this year. Moving forward, DIC plans to focus on these three plants to efficiently manage growth and business development throughout China.

“In southern China, DIC completed construction of its new Dongguan ink plant,” added Sota. “The Dongguan plant is equipped with the latest equipment for vastly improved production efficiency. In eastern China, DIC is now constructing a major plant in Nantong to replace the existing plant. In northern China, DIC operates the Shenyang plant, covering northern markets.”

India

Along those lines, the ink industry is seeing plenty of opportunities in India.

“The markets for commercial printing, publishing, and packaging in India have been on a recovery track over the past year, showing steady growth,” Sota observed.

DIC India opened a new plant in Saykha, Bharuch district, Gujarat, expanding production to meet market growth. DIC India’s new plant specializes in environmentally friendly toluene-free liquid ink manufacturing.

“The Saykha Plant occupies 92,500 square meters and can manufacture over 10,000 metric tons of toluene-free/ketone-free liquid inks in two shifts,” added Sota. “DIC India plans to further augment the plant to produce value-added and specialty products for domestic and export markets. This plant will also strengthen DIC’s exports. DIC India has also enhanced its Noida Plant as a technical center developing new environmentally friendly products from India.”

“India has seen a continuation of the strong growth momentum from the past four years as all of our business units have grown,” said Pradhan.

“Although sales of newspaper ink are somewhat sluggish, sales of packaging ink are strong and exports from India to Africa and Europe are increasing,” said Kaneko. “Despite challenges such as rising labor costs and falling sales prices, environmentally friendly toluene- and MEK-free inks are growing. We aim to increase our market share with high-quality, eco-friendly products.”

Environmental Regulations on the Rise

There has been a lot of discussion on increasing environmental regulations in Europe and the Americas, but the Asia-Pacific region is also seeing activity.

Pradhan reported that regulations are tightening across the board.

“The entire region is seeing the rollout of EPR regulations for plastic waste management,” Pradhan added. “In addition to this, we saw the rollout of restrictions on the use of toluene, especially in food packaging being put in place in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia. India has already banned the use of toluene in food packaging.”

“There is an increasing demand to comply with not only laws and regulations, but also voluntary regulations by companies, such as PFAS and French mineral oil regulations,” said Hinataya.

“In addition to increasing environmental regulations in various countries and the growing environmental awareness among brand owners, the development of environmentally friendly products is one of our strategies,” said Kaneko. “We have been promoting the ‘Botanical Ink series – which partially uses plant-derived materials – in Japan since 2016. We are expanding this series mainly in Asian countries.”

“While global brand owners and global converters are beginning to factor in environmental regulations, most local companies in the Asia-Pacific region continue to pursue lower costs rather than investing in the more expensive products that comply with environmental regulations,” Sota pointed out. “We expect this situation to continue until legal regulations are strengthened and strictly enforced in each country.”

“The Chinese government continues to strengthen its regulatory oversight on environmental protection,” Aldred noted. “New regulations related to VOCs and food safety have been introduced, including “Limits for VOCs in Printing Ink” and GB4804.14.
“There is growing interest in environmental regulations,” added Aldred. “The main drivers of increased environmental awareness are brand owners like Nestlé, P&G, and Unilever. Brand owners are also requiring their vendors to take active steps to address sustainability, ensuring that only suppliers who comply with regulations are selected or retained as current vendors.”

New Facilities in the Region

Not surprisingly, ink industry leaders are fortifying their operations in the region. For example, Flint Group continues to invest in China, Southeast Asia and India.

“DIC India launched new manufacturing operations at its new plant in Saykha, Bharuch district, Gujarat,” said Sota. “With a substantial production capacity of 10,000 metric tons, the new plant serves as a mother plant for toluene-free liquid ink products, catering to the burgeoning Indian packaging materials market. In China, DIC added a new plant in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. This plant is set to launch operations this year. The Dongguan Plant will serve as a key hub for supplying ink products in southern China, further strengthening DIC’s market presence.”

“Siegwerk is expanding its Indonesia facility in Tangerang and has invested to expand the R&D lab in Thailand,” Pradhan said. “Siegwerk also opened new Color Matching Centres in Pune and Chennai in India. In addition to this, we have also invested in building a solar park in Jaisalmer in India.”

“At the end of 2023, we expanded the production facilities for solvent-based inks at our plant near Hanoi, Vietnam,” said Kaneko. “We plan to strengthen the sales of packaging inks in the northern region of Vietnam.

“In February 2024, we established Sakata INX Asia Holdings Sdn. Bhd. to oversee the Asian region,” Kaneko added. “This entity will manage operations in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Our goal is to strengthen our governance system based on sustainability management, and maximize group profits through enhanced collaboration between Sakata INX and local subsidiaries.”