TAGS: Sustainability / Natural Coatings Inks UV/EB Technology
Markets and Markets (M&M) anticipates that the market size for ink resins is projected to grow from USD 3.3 billion in 2021 to USD 3.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 3.4% during the 2021-2026 forecast period. Increasing environmental protection standards for the printing ink industry, growth of packaging and energy curable inks industries, increasing demand for UV-cured inks, and new resin technologies are the key factors contributing to the growth of the ink resins market.
COVID-19 Impact on Ink Resins Market
The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted the production of raw materials used in ink resins manufacturing. The value chain of ink resins had witnessed various disruptions owing to the outbreak of COVID-19. The major disruption in the value chain has been the lack of suppliers owing to the shutdown of various industries, including raw material manufacturers. This was aggravated by international and regional road restrictions imposed across the globe to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Resins are crucial to ink formulation, providing essential characteristics to inks. They impart many of the important characteristics of a finished ink, including gloss and adhesion. Key raw materials the ink industry relies on are benzene, toluene, ethylene and propylene. IPDI (isophorone diisocyanate) and IPDA (isophorone diamine) are available, which are crucial for the high-end polyurethane resin market. The availability of acrylates is expected to remain steady, albeit subject to some seasonal and competing demand in paints and coatings, adhesives, and construction applications. Resin raw materials are available, although costs continue to be susceptible to the volatility of feedstock costs or interim supplydemand imbalances. Propylene oxide-based polyols are available, but pricing has increased. The supply of raw materials has improved; however, pricing has not decreased.
Restraint: Volatile Raw Material Prices & Fluctuations in Demand
There was a shortage of raw materials, mainly base chemicals for resins, used for producing resins during 2010-2020. It was due to a surge in oil prices, followed by a demand and supply gap, which led to increased competition from other industries using resins, such as adhesives & sealants and composites. It exerted upward pressure on prices, eventually leading to the substitution of major resins, such as epoxy, polyurethane, acrylic, alkyd, and vinyl, with other resins that include cellulose, phenolic, and vinyl esters.
The prices of resins in Europe were relatively high compared with other regions. Therefore, the manufacturers of ink resins in Europe planned to realign their purchasing operations, which eventually led to the substitution of ink resins by other raw materials.
Renewed Interest in Water-based Inks
Environmental advantages are driving interest in water-based inks. For specific product lines, there is an increasing interest in water-based inks, especially with regard to high-quality process printing for pre-print corrugated boxes or packages. The use of water-based systems continues to be of interest to reduce waste and emissions. There is some renewed interest in water-based inks for high-performance laminations and one-part systems for outdoor applications.
The renewed interest in water-based inks is expected to increase in demand for acrylic and maleic resins as they are a major part of at least half of all water-based inks.
Ink manufacturers want to lower the cost of their resins but need the same performance. The main expectation of ink manufacturers from resin suppliers are stable price support, better quality supply, sufficient quantity offer, and technical discussion/exchange.
Managing the ups and downs of raw material prices by ink resin manufacturers takes significant resources, which could be better spent on developing new opportunities with ink manufacturers. The main challenges in the resin industry are to satisfy different quality requirements from each customer and to assist each customer and find the best ways to handle high raw material costs in such a competitive resin market environment.
Modified Rosin to be Largest Resin Type
Rosin is expected to be the largest ink resin type segment. The modified rosin is a natural resin obtained from pine trees and is regarded as an inexpensive resin. Its price has risen slightly over the last decade; however, there has been little decline in its use. It is ecologically sound to produce rosin from living sources, as opposed to fossil sources and tree stumps, making gum rosin a regenerative starting material for printing ink resins. Rosin has been used in alcohol-based lacquers, in combination with mineral oils for applications such as comic publication and newspaper inks.
The use of UV-curable inks in the US in the packaging market continues to increase, especially with the introduction of low migration inks that support current global and regional regulations. Key advantages of UV-cured inks are solvent-free inks resulting in lower insurance, high level of product resistance, ease of usage, and flexibility to accommodate various sizes and variety of print jobs.
Solvent-based inks continue to be the largest technology segment. The main resin used is low viscosity nitrocellulose (NC), which is featured in more than 70% of all solvent-based liquid inks. Liquid media, based on NC, disperse pigment reasonably well, have a good balance between viscosity and solids content, have low odor, print well, and are compatible with a large number of media based on other polymers.
Gravure and flexographic printing processes continue to replace lithographic inks in several applications with the growing packaging segment. The digital printing process is rapidly gaining market share owing to the shift from ink media to electronic media in the publication sector. Other printing processes such as letterpress have become obsolete and are losing market share to the flexographic and gravure processes.
There is a high potential for demand growth of ink resins from the flexible packaging and corrugated cardboard & cartons segments during 2021-2026 due to improved living standard in developing countries and increased demand for food security.
The demand for resins from the printing & publication segment is declining due to the shift toward the digital media and the Internet in addition to the decline in demand from the newspaper and magazine industry.
Highest Growth in APAC Region
Asia Pacific is the largest ink resins market, in terms of both, value and volume, and is projected to be the fastest-growing during the forecast period. The region has witnessed economic growth over the last decade.
Fueled by booming economies in China, India, and a few smaller countries, the ink industry is growing. In particular, the packaging sector offers opportunities as manufacturers and global packaging converters expand to the region. Growth of the printing inks industry varied throughout the Asia Pacific region, with China witnessing the highest increase at 10%. Inkjet printing is on the rise in the Asia Pacific and is growing at a high rate throughout the region, both, in industrial segments such as wide format signage as well as in personal use.
Apart from personal use, inkjet inks have an increasing demand from the wide format markets in India and Australia. The packaging segment is growing at the highest rate and is sustainable. It also has the shortest life cycle and therefore requires constantly changing formulations. The labels, packaging, and corrugated sectors in Australia and India are growing at significant rates as companies use the technologies and capabilities available to export to the nearby regions. In Indonesia and Thailand, UV printing has been steadily developing. In Japan, hybrid (UV and oil-based) type ink is one of the trends.
To meet environmental regulations, it is necessary to adhere to the regulations regarding VOCs and solvents as well as aromatic solvents. Demand for gravure inks not containing toluene is increasing in Southeast Asia. Due to the growth in exporting packaged food, environmental requirements are needed to be met for boil and retort packages. Environmental-friendly inks are gaining an increasing market share. With the exception of Japan and Republic of Korea, markets in the Asia Pacific region are expected to grow during the forecast period.
The spread of COVID-19 started in China in early January 2020, and within a short time, spread in other Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, resulting in rapid positive cases and death. This led national governments across APAC to announce lockdowns, leading to a decrease in decreased traffic, construction & mining activities, manufacturing activities, and most commercial segments. Considering the above factors, the ink resins market has declined in APAC in 2020.
In India, for instance, the COVID-19 scenario could impact in both negative (short-term) and positive ways. The ink resins for packaging market for packaging in India is projected to grow at a significant rate between 2021 and 2026. The demand for packaged food is growing amidst panic buying, and the demand for medicines is also expected to grow. The packaging industry in the country would thus experience rapid growth as more packaging is being demanded to serve a population of 1.3 billion.
The key players operating in the market are BASF SE (Germany), Covestro AG (Germany), The Dow Chemical Company (US), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), and Lawter (US).
Source: Markets and Markets (M&M)