Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Number of Employees: 200 (DEERS i and DEERS M) (Ink World estimate).

Comments: DEERS i, or Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, having been founded in 1945 as Korea Offset Ink. As the original name suggests, DEERS i is an offset ink specialist, manufacturing sheetfed, news, rotary printing, metal deco and UV inks at its factories in Korea and Vietnam. DEERS M (or DI&C) mostly manufactures
gravure inks.

Charlie Lee, Daihan Ink’s executive director, reported that DEERS i and M’s sales were solid in 2024.

“Despite various internal and external challenges, our performance last year was good,” Lee said. “In particular, regarding exports, I believe not only our company but also other Korean ink competitors benefited from the strong US dollar, which led to good export results and higher profits. But as we all know, this has been changed recently by Mr. Trump’s policy, so we are not sure how it will work in 2025.”

Lee noted that due to changing trends in the printing industry, the offset printing market in Korea has been shrinking by more than 5% annually.

“When it comes to heatset, it’s more, while the package printing market still remains relatively ok,” Lee added. “However, the demand for packaging print inks is all small-lot, high-mix products, so it is negatively impacting productivity. And for package printing, the UV ink market is still good. We try to improve our productivity for small lot and color mixing systems and have developed a new version of UV ink. And as usual, we are focusing on the environmental coating industry, which can replace PE film inside the paper cup. With this barrier coating, we are targeting not only paper cups but also food paper trays and other applications.”

To trade and store chemicals, DEERS i built a new warehouse, which is allowing the company to branch out.

“Now, our concept is not only manufacturing, but also a total chemical trader,” Lee said. “Our overseas department is actively working to source new chemicals which haven’t been introduced much in Korea.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Number of Employees: 200 (DEERS i and DEERS M) (Ink World estimate).

Comments: The oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, DEERS i, or Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., was founded in 1945 as Korea Offset Ink. DEERS i is an offset ink specialist, manufacturing sheetfed, news, rotary printing, metal deco and UV inks. DEERS M (or DI&C) mostly produces gravure inks.

DEERS i also has two other subsidiaries: DEERS SEDA, which handles chemical trading, car painting facility design and construction; and DEERS E&C, which constructs chemical and industrial facilities.

DEERS i and M’s sales were flat over 2023, while the other subsidiaries showed solid growth. In particular, DEERS i and M are focusing more on coatings, especially barrier coatings and some other special coatings that are already applied to paper cups without PE film, as well as other food paper trays.

“Compared with 2022, sales dropped a bit due to export sales such as to Russia declining,” said Charlie Lee, Daihan Ink’s executive director. “The domestic market keeps going down, especially the web heatset and coldset market. When it comes to sheetfed, inks for packaging are still ok, and there is more demand for spot colors.”

DEERS made some major personnel moves in the past year. J.M. Oh, who has been with DEERS i (Daihan Ink) for more than 30 years, previously as director of R&D and production line, is the new CEO. Lee is now executive director, in charge of overseas business as well as the management department, including accounting and HR.

Lee said that DEER i is optimistic about the rest of the year, having participated in drupa.

“We hope we can get more global customers,” said Lee. “This time, our theme is Environment Friendly, and we mainly promoted MOSH- and MOAH-free inks and environmentally friendly inks and coatings such as barrier coatings. After this exhibition, we believe that the rest of 2024 will go smoothly.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Key Personnel: Han Jin Soo, DEERS Group CEO

Number of Employees: 200 (DEERS I and DEERS M) (Ink World estimate).

Comments: DEERS I, or Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, with its beginnings dating back to 1945 as Korea Offset Ink. DEERS I is an offset ink specialist; among its products are sheetfed, news, rotary printing, metal deco and UV inks. DEERS M (or DI&C) is focused primarily on gravure inks.

DEERS I also has two other subsidiaries. DEERS SEDA produces coatings for automotive and industrial markets, while DEERS E&C develops chemical and industrial facilities.

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Number of Employees: 200 (DEERS I and DEERS M) (Ink World estimate).

Comments: Founded in 1945, DEERS I, or Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea. DEERS I is an offset ink specialist; among its products are sheetfed, news, rotary printing, metal deco and UV inks. DEERS M (or DI&C) is focused primarily on gravure inks.

DEERS I also has two other subsidiaries. DEERS SEDA manufactures coatings for automotive and industrial markets, while DEERS E&C engineers chemical and industrial facilities.

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Number of Employees: 200 (DEERS I and DEERS M)

Comments: It was a mixed year for DEERS I, or Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea. DEERS M (or DI&C) focuses on liquid inks, which did very well, while DEERS I, an offset ink specialist, faced a downturn.

“Due to the lockdown all over the world last year, our offset part had the worst results in the last 10 to 15 years,” said Charlie Lee, head of Daihan Ink’s Overseas Sales Department’s team. “But our liquid part had the best year as food packaging consumption increased a lot because of the pandemic.”

The change in ink requirements has led DEERS to emphasize new markets.

“Since commercial printing is going down, we put more efforts on UV ink for packaging printing, so we created a task force team to boost our UV ink’s quality and sales,” Lee observed.

DEERS is also doing coating development to replace PE film on the paper. “It’s not 100% ready,” Lee noted. “But it’s going well. We will also focus on more environment friendly products for the coming future.”

Lee reported that raw material prices on materials such as resins, pigments, oils and even additives all increased. “But it’s difficult to increase ink prices the same as raw material price increases, so some part we had to absorb,” he added. “We believe that, by the end of year or the beginning of next year, raw material prices would be stable when COVID-19 is stable.”

Lee said that 2021 is getting off to a good start at DEERS.

“The beginning of 2021 is better than last year,” Lee said. “Our overseas business is getting back to normal, and the local market is also. Due to price increases, customers tend to place more orders in advance. But we are not sure for the second half of this year, so we are trying some other consumable businesses to become total solution provider. Offset ink market, the pie is already fixed, and the fact is that this pie is not getting bigger in the future. It’s like a zero-sum game. We need to put special value on our products, or try to find niche markets.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

No. of Employees: 200 (DEERS I and DEERS M)

Comments: DEERS I, or Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, having opened its doors in 1945. The company makes a wide variety of inks, with DEERS I focusing on offset inks and DEERS M (or DI&C) specializing in liquid inks.

One of the key highlights from the past year is the company’s continued rebranding, emphasizing its capabilities as a leading chemical supplier.

“We changed our name to become a total chemical solution provider,” said Charlie Lee, head of Daihan Ink’s Overseas Sales Department’s team. “The Daihan Ink name limits us to do only ink. So, we maintain Daihan as our big brand name, and we start with our new name. Step by step, we will do our other chemical business such as coatings, films, etc., but of course, ink is always in our backbone as our identity.”

COVID-19 affected Korea’s domestic market at first and has since been impacting the export segment.

“It’s terrible,” said Lee. “The impact for us from the overseas market started in the second quarter of 2020. During the first quarter, only the Korean local market was affected.”

While Daihan Ink is noted for its offset inks, the company’s decisions to branch out into liquid inks as well as open a factory in Vietnam is paying off.

“The Korean offset market decreases every year,” said Lee. “As usual, commercial printing is not good, but packaging printing, not only offset but also the liquid ink market, is good. From 2019, our Vietnam factory produces inks both from their own ink and our base inks from Korea. Before, they only used to produce ink with Korean base ink.”

“To have more competition in the market, we expanded our capability to overseas markets such as Vietnam and Pakistan,” Lee added. “If there was no COVID, we were planning to attend drupa to promote our three factories in Korea, Vietnam and Pakistan. But luckily, DEERS M has been researching antimicrobial products by using ZnO (zinc oxide), and it met very good timing. So, both DEERS I and M are selling an antimicrobial film that can offset the loss of existing ink.

Another benefit of DEERS’ Vietnam factory is its new partnership with a resin supplier.

“Our raw material price is quite stable, and we have a strategic partner for resin located right next to our Vietnam factory,” Lee noted.

Lee said the rest of the year remains unpredictable, as the COVID-19 pandemic will likely continue.

“Just like the Spanish Flu in 1918, we are expecting the second pandemic will come at the end of the year, in the fourth quarter, so we really can’t anticipate the markets,” Lee added. “But it will be better than now. We will market not only ink but also anti-microbial film as well. And DEERS M’s liquid ink is selling well due to mask package printing.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

No. of Employees: 300

Comments: Founded in 1945, Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea. Daihan Ink Group features four companies: Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., which offers total printing solutions for offset, UV and metal deco inks and coatings; DI&C Co., Ltd., which focuses on liquid inks; Seda Co., Ltd., which designs and constructs chemical plants and is involved in chemical trading; and Izen Co., Ltd., which specializes in chemical plant maintenance, design and construction.

Charlie Lee, head of Daihan Ink’s Overseas Sales Department’s team,  said that the company is seeing growth in packaging while commercial printing continues to decline.

“Both in the local and overseas markets, it was slightly lower than 2017,” Lee said. “Korean commercial printing keeps decreasing every year, so we are now focusing more on packaging printing ink such as high pigmentation offset ink, UV ink, etc. In 2019, we have decided to invest more in our Vietnam factory. Until now, our Vietnam factory produced inks with Korean base ink (semi-finished ink), but we realized that it limits our expansion, so we decided to expand the facility so that our Vietnam factory can produce from A to Z.

“The conventional printing industry is declining, so we are trying to reinforce conventional market more, and expanding our line-ups to coatings and other related chemicals,” added Lee. “And in our background, we have our paint group, and we are collaborating with them as well.”

Daihan Ink has made some strategic alliances with suppliers that are paying off in various ways, ensuring stable supply at good prices.

“We have a strategic alliance with a resin company, so our main raw material supply is quite stable,” Lee said. “For other raw materials such as pigments, prices keep increasing, but we are trying to absorb it. The toughest issue is LED UV ink raw materials, which are photoinitiators. Due to the shortage of supply, the price increased by about 400%, and now is slightly decreasing, so it’s difficult to manage the LED UV ink business.”

Lee said that Daihan Ink’s alliance with a recovered carbon black company is proving to be successful.

“We have a strategic alliance with a recovered carbon black (rCB) company, so we apply this to our book black ink that is good quality and price competitive,” he noted.  “We are not only using this rCB, but we trade this, plus we are trading masterbatches made of this rCB. We also recently developed Graphene PTC carbon black ink for heating film; we supply this ink to this film manufacturing company, and are also trading this film.”

Lee noted that these alliances will be critical to competing in this difficult environment.

“It will be tougher day by day,” he added. “We need to create new solutions so that we can scratch customers’ itches. To overcome these difficulties, we will keep making strategic alliances with related companies, and at the same time, will keep developing competitive products.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Number of Employees: 300

Comments: Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, dating back to 1945. The company offers a full range of inks, including liquid, paste and digital inks.

Daihan Ink Group Companies consists of four companies: Daihan Ink Co., Ltd., which is focused on providing total printing solutions for offset, UV and metal deco inks and coatings; DI&C Co., Ltd., which specializes in liquid inks; Seda Co., Ltd., which designs and constructs chemical plants and also is involved in chemical trading; and Izen Co., Ltd., which is focused on chemical plant maintenance, design and construction.

Daihan Ink enjoyed an excellent year overall with sales remaining steady. One highlight is its new factory in Vietnam, which began operations in October 2016.

“For Daihan, 2017 was almost the same as previous years,” said Charlie Lee, head of the Overseas Sales Department’s team. “With Daihan Ink’s Vietnam factory, we have wider options to supply inks. Even though we struggled the same as others in the dropping offset ink market, we could maintain sales, and one of the reasons is thanks to our Vietnam factory.”

Lee added that Daihan Ink is now working on new headquarters, which will allow the company to bring its leadership together under one roof.

“We are now building a new factory for coating products, and we are now building a new 10-story building for our Daihan Ink Group company office. When our group companies get together in one building, we will operate one Strategy Leadership Team that can cover the group companies.”

Another highlight was the company’s participation in the UAE printing exhibition, which gave Daihan Ink new customers in Africa.

Raw materials and currency challenges are having an impact on Daihan Ink.

“We are facing two difficulties,” said Lee. “One is raw material price increases, and the other one is the exchange rate. Chinese environment regulations are causing raw material price increases. Meanwhile, for Korea, due to the peaceful mode on the Korean peninsula, the US dollar is getting weaker, but in some other countries on our customers’ side, the US dollar is getting stronger.

“Even though we saw some news that some major ink manufacturers increased their price, we still have a lot of pressure to decrease our price, and we haven’t increased our ink price,” Lee added. “We still try to maintain the same price as before by sacrificing ourselves as last year.”

Daihan Ink’s new plant in Vietnam is key to its growth in the coming years.

“Our target for the coming year is that we are selling in markets that we haven’t been good in, such as Africa and South America,”

Lee observed. “Mostly these markets are lower price ink markets, so we are ready to approach them with our Vietnam ink, which offers good quality and good price. Market competition is getting higher and higher, so even if we can maintain the market, that is good, but we will do more to survive.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink; digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

No. of Employees: 200

Comments: Headquartered in Kyonggi-Do, Korea, Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. is the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea. Daihan Ink has a full complement of liquid, paste and digital inks specializes in full portfolio of inks, and added a waterless ink, water-based coating, and environmentally-friendly blanket and plate cleaner recently.

Daihan Ink had a solid year in 2016, with sales coming in at $85 million. Charlie Lee, head of the Overseas Sales Department’s team, reported that packaging is the best opportunity for growth right now.

“Commercial printing is decreasing, while the packaging printing market still is growing,” Lee said. “And at the same time, there is more demand for good but cheap UV ink.

In terms of overseas markets, there are many new small Chinese companies who are more focused on export, because they lose competition even in their local market.

There is more supply than demand now.”

Raw material costs remain a challenge for ink manufacturers, and Daihan Ink is no exception.

“ Fortunately, for the last couple of years until now, raw material prices have been quite stable, particularly oils and rosins,” said Lee. “But when there is a rise in raw material costs, we try to absorb it by ourselves first, and not increase the ink price by keeping the cost down, not only for raw materials but also all the expenses in the factory. And now, there are many lower priced inks. We haven’t increased the price for so long, and we are trying to develop lower priced ink or find the way how we can supply less expensive ink.”

Daihan Ink has two factories in Korea. Its Anyang factory, located 15 km from Seoul, was built in 1976, while the Pyeongtaek facility, 60 km from Seoul, was built in 2006. Daihan Ink recently completed its new ink factory in Vietnam.

“We built a new factory in Vietnam, and started operations since October 2016,” Lee said. “We are now preparing some other investment in Asia.”

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink; letterpress ink; UV inkjet ink;digital sublimation ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Number of Employees: 200

Comments: The oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. had a good year in 2015, with sales remaining essentially stable at $85 million. The company specializes in a full portfolio of inks, including offset, flexo, gravure and inkjet inks, and recently introduced a waterless ink.

Daihan Ink’s Charlie Lee reported that raw material prices have remained steady for the most part during the past year.

“Fortunately, from the couple of years until now, raw material prices have been quite stable,” Lee noted. “But when there is a rise in raw material costs, we first try to absorb it by ourselves and not increase our ink prices, not only for raw materials but also all the expenses in the factory.”

Daihan Ink has two factories. Its Anyang factory, built in 1976, is located 15 km from Seoul. The second factory, built in 2006, is in Pyeongtaek, 60 km from Seoul. Daihan Ink is now expanding into Southeast Asia.

“We are now building a new factory in Vietnam,” Lee said. “Construction will be finished within August or September, trial running will be done by this year, and from next year, official sales will be started.”

Lee said that the consolidation on the ink industry is a challenge for mid-sized ink manufacturers.

“Now, it seems that the big ink companies become bigger giants by merging smaller ones,” Lee said. “It looks like they are doing economies of scale, but at the same time, they handle the price with many flexibilities (decreasing the price), so we are worried that will boomerang, and finally hurts us all. So, just like our mid-sized company, we are trying to find some niche market where the big giants can’t reach.”

Lee said that one area of interest is digital printing.

“The digital printing industry is getting bigger, and its efficiency (quality, cost, speed) compared to conventional printing becomes better and better, so we are preparing something step-by-step for this digital market,” he noted.

Major Products: Offset sheetfed, web heatset, UV ink; metal deco ink. Sister company DI&C produces gravure and flexo ink.

Comments: As Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. celebrates its 70th anniversary, making it the oldest ink manufacturer in Korea, the company continues to fare well in its core markets of sheetfed, heatset, UV ink and metal deco, while its sister company DI&C produces liquid inks.

The Asia-Pacific has seen the decline in the publication and commercial ink market, and Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. is no exception. Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. has felt this impact.

“We guess, not only for us, but all of the companies involved in the printing industry are having a hard time every year,” said Charlie Lee of Daihan Ink Co., Ltd. “Frankly speaking, we have had almost the same turnover for the last couple of years, but slightly increased year by year.

“Before, when the heatset market was good, our market share of heatset in Korea was more than 50%,” Lee added. “But nowadays, many big stores and shopping companies stopped publishing catalogs and leaflets printed by heatset, so the heatset market has dropped a lot.”

Lee said that the printing industry is heading into a period of decline.

“It’s not only for ink, but also other consumables for printing,” Lee noted. “Many Korean printing companies have gone bankrupt due to fewer orders, more competition and digital (both printing and prints). Now, the only winner is the one who can make niche market or who has a specialty in terms of price or quality or product.

“According to our marketing team’s report, in 2013, all of Korea’s major ink companies except ours had minus performance for the sales of their own products compared to 2012, while we had a 0.3% increase. And compared to 2013, 2014 wasn’t good either. We don’t see any brightness in 2015 either.”

To prepare for the changing nature of the printing and ink industries, Daihan Ink is emphasizing globalization through cooperation with its partners in Asia, investing $25 million in its new factory.

“Even though we have more capability for production due to fewer orders from our domestic market, we realized the later we made the decision to go global, the worse the results would be,” Lee said. “So we found several partners, and are now considering how to proceed. It will be single investment, a JV or OEM (plus technical cooperation), depending on the markets and partners. As for our current factory in Korea, we will focus on high quality ink and other printing-related business such as coatings.”

Daihan Ink has two factories. Its Anyang factory, built in 1976, is located 15 km from Seoul. The second factory is in Pyeongtaek, 60 km from Seoul, and was built in 2006. This factory is more automated; Daihan Ink developed its first solvent-free ink, and received the Korea Green Management Award from the Korean president.

Lee noted there are challenges ahead for Daihan Ink. Japan’s currency rate has proved to be a concern, leading to decreases in exports to the country. The weak euro is also leading to buyers returning to European ink suppliers, although the weakened euro also impacts raw material purchases. On the plus side, the company does expect to see increased business in Iran in the second half of 2015 after its 5+1 agreement with Iran.

Daihan Ink’s R&D continues to excel, introducing new products, including a low-VOC waterless ink (VOCs less than 1% for both heatset and sheetfed), packaging inks, H-UV, LED-UV, some electronic ink, digital ink and new coatings, including soft feel, UV silkscreen, and heat insulating coatings.